The Herdmans are absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world--which is how the story begins. They lie, they steal, they bully...and now they've hijacked the town of Emmanuel's Christmas pageant. This story follows six siblings, including Imogene Herdman (Beatrice Schneider), Ralph (Mason Nelligan), Ollie (Essek Moore), Leroy (Ewan Matthys-Wood), Claude (Matthew Lamb) and Gladys (Kynlee Heiman), who sneak into church searching for snacks and ultimately walk away with the lead roles in the town pageant. Grace (Judy Greer) is directing the play for the very first time; she and her daughter Beth (Molly Belle Wright) and husband Bob (Pete Holmes) are in over their heads especially against a town that wants to kick the Herdmans out of the play. But the play's mischievous stars might unwittingly teach a community the true meaning of Christmas.
Others to round out the cast are Lorelei Olivia Mote as Alice, Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez as Charlie, Lauren Graham as Adult Beth, Stephanie Sy as Mrs. Thomas, Kirk B.R. Woller as Reverend Hopkins, Mariam Bernstein as Mrs. Armstrong and Jenni Burke as Miss. Graebner.
This was directed with wit and heart by Dallas Jenkins ("Midnight Clear" '06, "What If..." '10, "Live Worship from Vertical Church" '12, "The Resurrection of Gavin Stone" '17, "Christmas with the Chosen: Holy Night" '23) plus TV and shorts. This story certainly is within this filmmaker's comfort zone considering his inspiration film experience. Jenkins was the creator of the TV series "The Chosen" which has gained much popularity, so directing this comedy was evidently an easy task. No matter the character in this film, they came across realistic and believable and just what anyone would expect to see in a small town in the year 1972, and this is effective directing. It was wonderfully written by Ryan Swanson, Platte Clarke and Darin McDaniel, based on the novel by Barbara Robinson. Even though these writers don't have an abundance of experience, what they brought to the writing table was surely enough to write an amazing screenplay. Swanson had worked on the 'Chosen' series with Jenkins so his input certainly had to be pivotal. When I saw the trailer on this film, I personally wasn't impressed--the trailer doesn't sell this film, it goes much deeper than the trailer depicts. These six siblings however are hellish, they are seemingly the ones that, after a point, start gravitating to this story of Christmas which they've never experienced. Just like in the bible where the religious were pious and the tax collectors and prostitutes were hungry for info about God, the same goes here: the religious are pious (the townspeople) where these unloving, delinquent kids seem to be more hungry about knowing more about this Christmas story. They 'fight' these feelings, but as they hang around certain people, especially Grace, they slowly wonder if there's more to life. It's an interesting process, since it would be so easy to cast these kids to the wayside, but Grace saw more to them.
If you see this, the message is amazing. According to Grace in this film, Jesus was born and died for all of us--not just the lovable and acceptable, so we should extend a hand to these people as well, and isn't this the reason the the holiday of Christmas?
Out of 4 Stars: 4 Rated: PG 99mins.
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