Journey to Bethlehem was released into theaters last month, and so far there have been many, many mixed reviews. Some say it was the best of the year, others say it was offensive and a failure. I believe that both these opinions are a little extreme, and the movie had some really good and really bad parts, averaging to just okay.
The story is centered around Joseph (played by Milo Manheim) and Mary (played by Fiona Palomo) as they find out that they are to be married without their choice. Mary becomes pregnant with Jesus, and then they make their way to Bethlehem. All the while, a tyrant king is hunting them down, trying to kill Jesus, as He is the coming king. I will try to keep this article without spoilers, but the story is pretty well known, especially if you come from a religious household.
The one aspect that made this rendition of the story any different than its previous, better renditions is that this was a musical. The music itself wasn’t bad, and had some really good moments, especially when Mary sang her solos; Fiona Paloma shined as a singer. However, there were many rough patches, one of which was Joseph’s song, which included two versions of himself fighting in a strange nightmare-ish environment that I found really strange.
Also, the whole musical idea made the story something of a Disney movie in which Mary is the princess who refuses to get married, which was boring and inaccurate. Back then, responding like that was not appropriate at all, and would have required serious punishment. This is not some make believe story in a fantasy world. For example, when Mary found out she was to be married to Joseph, she threw a fit saying that she wanted to be a teacher, and then stormed out in a huff, to which the town responded by bursting out into a song about why marriage is awesome (while somehow conveying that it wasn’t). By the end of the unusual song, Mary was suddenly partially convinced that marriage was great, which I found gullible and dumb.
Finally, this movie is meant for the whole family to go see, and is geared towards younger audiences, while still (trying) to provide laughs for the older audiences, and this may just have saved it. However, when asking the younger audience about what they thought of the movie, they said they also wanted a more serious movie, though they still enjoyed it.
“It was not a very serious [movie] and sometimes it was a little bit cheesy. But I liked it because of some of the music and some of the [actors]. It was very interesting compared to the other stories,” says Alliyah Callahan, who’s eleven years old, “It was kind of like Minions, where it’s meant for the whole family, instead of just teenagers.”
Overall, I’d say that this movie was two out of five stars, and if you want to watch it for an accurate story of Jesus’s birth, don’t. But, if you are just wanting to see a fun movie for fun reasons, go for it!
