Black Nativity
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: November 27, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
17
Negative:
4
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Chicago Sun-TimesMary HoulihanNov 26, 2013
Lemmons and her cast, aided by some great music, have created an interlude sure to lift the spirit during the holiday season. Read full review
68
Film.comEric D. SniderNov 27, 2013
While the film certainly targets a particular audiences, those viewers who don’t fall squarely into that demographic should nevertheless find the film pleasant enough, its pastoral ambitions compensating for its lack of finesse. Read full review
65
NPRMark JenkinsDec 2, 2013
Like "Eve's Bayou," her best-known movie, Kasi Lemmons' Black Nativity presents a child's view of a troubled family. The latter film is sweeter and slenderer, but that's only to be expected. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 27, 2013
Black Nativity offers a whopping serving of Yuletide emotion. And it's a musical - with plenty of wailing and rapping on the side. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 27, 2013
Sensory pleasures abound in Black Nativity, which is grounded by Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett’s performances as Langston’s strict, God-fearing grandparents. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 26, 2013
Anchored by a topnotch ensemble cast, it's toe-tapping holiday fare that's also a potent reminder that family resentments and hardened hearts serve no one. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 26, 2013
Whitaker's performance is the rock here. Even when the confrontations and evasions get a little ridiculous, he's neither wholly saint nor sinner, but something like a human being. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreNov 25, 2013
Modestly entertaining and uplifting version of a “greatest story” that has proven as malleable as it is timeless. Read full review
60
Total FilmKen McIntyreDec 9, 2013
The well-worn platitudes and pained moralising are a bit much, but the music is tremendous. Read full review
60
The DissolveTasha RobinsonNov 27, 2013
While Black Nativity often lacks polish and restraint, at least it never lacks for soul. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 26, 2013
Ms. Lemmons has a tough time finding her tone. From scene to scene, the actors are good and then less so, while the direction wavers from assured to unsteady. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichNov 26, 2013
Though Lemmons’s parable-like intentions are clear, almost every beat of Langston’s tale, with its absent father figures and heated gun-pointing melodrama, rings false — hardly a fitting contemporary complement to the Greatest Story Ever Told. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNov 26, 2013
It doesn’t always work as drama, but as a musical, it’s often fantastic. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 26, 2013
The singing is terrific, particularly whenever Hudson belts out a number (and there is really no other way to describe her powerhouse vocals). But the story is trite and predictable, if heartfelt. Read full review
60
VarietyJustin ChangNov 25, 2013
Lemmons advances this story with straight-faced conviction, orchestrating narrative and spectacle with a grandiosity that proves easier to admire from a distance than it is to engage with onscreen. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickNov 26, 2013
A family-friendly, Hallmark Channel-ready musical dramatic fable whose plot more closely resembles Spike Lee’s “Red Hook Summer.’’ Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 26, 2013
Black Nativity is a just-OK feature film that, as an hour-long television special, could have had the makings of a classic. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchKevin C. JohnsonNov 26, 2013
Count Black Nativity as a more noble than notable effort. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyNov 26, 2013
While Hudson's and costar Mary J. Blige's soulful, stirring musical numbers are absolute dynamite, the rest of the film's story is larded with enough soap opera twists and heavy-handed schmaltz that you'll feel like you're being bludgeoned with a hymnal. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberNov 26, 2013
This holiday extravaganza with an all-star cast has a lot of failings. But it seems likely to tap into the audience’s enthusiasm for uplifting entertainment. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEric HendersonNov 25, 2013
For anyone who prefers their assertive homilies to crust over like a syrupy sweet, this loose adaptation of Langston Hughes's beloved holiday tradition will come on like a dream fulfilled. Read full review
40
The GuardianMike McCahillDec 9, 2013
Beneath middling songs – walloped out in the artless, post-Cowell manner – there's something faintly touching about its vision of broken homes. Read full review
40
EmpireJames WhiteDec 2, 2013
Despite the odd rip-roaring tune and some sturdy performances, this yuletide tale is as memorable as last year's sprouts. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyNov 26, 2013
Many of the transitions between narrative and music are rough. The temptations of the street, all too real in the real world, feel forced. Confrontations become clichés. The substance of human motivation is missing. And thus the heart never beats as it should. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNov 26, 2013
The movie doesn’t weave religion into the familiar structure of a comedy or melodrama. Instead, everything works in service to the sermon at the core. For most audience members, that will either be the primary draw or an inescapable drawback. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisNov 27, 2013
By the time the chorus of churchgoers end the film with a spirited rendition of Stevie Wonder’s rousing “As” following a demonstration of the healing power of forgiveness, you’re ready for a closing number. Hallelujah. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyNov 27, 2013
Black Nativity is a cut-rate musical melodrama that grafts overreaching references to black culture onto a facile family-values narrative. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianMarc MohanNov 25, 2013
Directed as if it were an after-school special, with listless performances and musical numbers (Mary J. Blige shows up as a platinum-wigged congregant), Black Nativity is as simple and condescending as Hughes' work was complex and demanding. Read full review
20
The TelegraphTim RobeyDec 5, 2013
It’s a misguided enterprise all round, and while it’s perfectly possible to applaud everything the film wants to say, you find yourself cringing at the ways it’s saying it. Read full review
More From This Movie

48 Critic Reviews

4.9 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL