Saint Nick of Bethlehem review

[Westside Steve]

Saint Nick of Bethlehem

Magic Bean Entertainment

PG. 93 min

So a short amount of time before deadline there were multiple Christmas movies to choose from, and two of them, apparently action-adventure violence Christmas nonsense, didn’t grab me while I was curious about Saint nick of Bethlehem, I’d never heard of any of the actors so I figured what the hell. I'm not exactly issuing a spoiler alert but you probably want to see it cold. Still I'm telling you right up front that if this doesn’t turn out to be a perennial Christmas family classic something is wrong at the North Pole or at least Eastern Pennsylvania. Gang, I loved every second of this film and that’s saying a lot. Like Goodrich which was meant to appeal on people in their 60s and maybe beyond, this might not be 100% for young kids but there's no reason that people of all ages can't love it too because anybody who has ever had a heart will love Nick McNulty (Daniel Roebuck) a man who has dealt with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and has come through with relative grace honesty and humility. Are there scars? Absolutely. A retired teacher who lost his 16 year old son just a few years back and lives at home taking care of his slightly screwy mother as best he can. His wife has left him a few years prior to the beginning of the film and he finds it harder and harder to let go of the past, the ex-wife the teacher of the year award at his son in heaven. He finds reason after reason to cling to those lost b<t precious moments. Don’t we all? It’s not until he bumps into his high school sweetheart Mary Marcia Dietlin Bennett) who has come back to Bethlehem to work a temporary job at the hospital and help take care of her aging mother. The surge of emotion he feels seeing her it mixes with pain guilt regret and even fear. Nick decides to bite the bullet and take one small step by accepting a job at his asshole Brother Charlie’s (Dwayne Whitaker) used car lot.

Charlie has never really respected Nick feeling that he was weak and not nearly aggressive enough for the real world. Still as it turns out his girth white hair and beard and a red coat from Goodwill make car buyers think of Santa Claus and he’s amazingly successful. In a nutshell that’s the bedrock of the film but there is so much more so many other moving parts so many other characters that weave in and out of this story. Children in the hospital with dire prognoses, a young boy whose father is killed suddenly overseas, other children adults and in between dealing with heartbreak and sadness over the Christmas season. Without giving away too many details the kind hearted Nick weaves in and out of their lives not with magic not with sparks from above she, no burning bush, no commandments written on stone tablets, but through the kind gentle love from the big man’s heart. Every personal tragedy is resolved with simple human charm and without a hint of evil. Even the worst characters are dealt with with a touch of forgiving humor. I know that doesn’t tell much of the story but you really need to see this with people you love. I’m betting you’ll want to see it every year at this time. I was in tears nearly the entire film and I don't care who knows it.

Just for a side note Roebuck also co-directed this film with Spencer Folmar, who I've never heard of either..

A+

WSS