Keisha treads softly in big role

In a bright spot among reviews, The New York Times applauds director Catherine Hardwicke’s sensitive re-telling of a central Christian narrative with The Nativity Story, released in time for Christmas on December 1. Some of the review’s strongest praise goes to actress Keisha Castle-Hughes, who tackled the starring role of Mary. “[The] 16-year-old New Zealand actress … seems entirely unfazed by the demands of playing Mary. She has the poise and intelligence to play the character not as an icon of maternity, but rather as a headstrong, thoughtful adolescent transformed by an unimaginable responsibility. Mary’s stubbornness and her honesty make her entirely believable, and the film’s most subtle and lively dramatic thread concerns her maturation from an ordinary Nazareth teenager into a wife and expectant mother.”