SAINT NICK OF BETHLEHEM REVIEW

“Decent enough to find itself some seasonal fans.”

It’s a little strange watching, let alone reviewing, a Christmas-related movie like Saint Nick of Bethlehem, in mid-January, but when this one crossed my path, I decided to check it out.

The film is written and directed by Spencer Folmar and Daniel Roebuck, the latter a prolific character actor who plays the title character, a divorcee named Nick McNulty, living at home with his mother Betty (Cathy Moriarty) in the town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Nick is still suffering from the death of his son, Scotty, he has begun working at the used car lot owned by his brother Charlie (Duane Whitaker) and reconnecting with an ex-girlfriend named Mary (Marsha Dietlin).

Although the film is very much about Nick – oh, did we mention that he has a gray bushy beard and a proclivity for wearing red like another famed “Nick”? – there are a lot of characters introduced in short order, and a few of them will play a larger part in the story, even if that’s not necessarily clear at first. We quickly are brought up to speed on Nick’s various relationships, including his stormy relationship with Charlie, the two of them constantly squabbling.

At first, I was a little confused, since I thought Moriarty was playing Nick’s wife, rather than his mother. I mean, he calls her “Mom,” but I thought maybe it was a cutesy thing like when a man calls his wife “mother,” but no, she’s actually his real mother even though she’s only a few years older than Roebuck.

There’s a lot of that sort of cuteness within Saint Nick, and while maybe that should be expected from a Christmas movie, it sometimes goes overboard, and it makes the movie feel more like a pilot for a TV series or maybe even a Hallmark movie at times. A lot of that comes from the amount of saccharine sentimentality that permeates so much of it, but on the positive side, this seems to be a community of characters that could work within a sitcom setting.

Much of that is due to Roebuck’s Nick being such a likeable and good-natured character, and that goes a long way to making the movie more enjoyable despite aspects of it that makes the movie feel too much like a vanity project. Although there is a period where Nick’s resemblance to Santa Clause does come into play, and he’s using that for good, like entertaining children at Mary’s hospital, that’s a very small part of the film’s charm.

Most of what works here is because Roebuck creates a character that quickly grows on you, and the story unfolds in a pleasant enough manner, even if it never goes anywhere particularly novel or exciting. (An interesting side note is that Roebuck is playing the Nazi Himler in a new biopic called Boenhoffer: Holy Traitor, written and directed by Folmar, so we’ll have to see how that differs from the recent Angel Studios biopic.)

Those who generally love Christmas movies should enjoy Saint Nick of Bethlehem enough, even if they might have to wait 10 more months to be in the proper mood for it. Every year, there are dozens of new independently-made Christmas movies, some better than others, and for what it’s trying to achieve, Saint Nick is decent enough to find itself some seasonal fans.

Rating: 6.5/10

Saint Nick of Bethlehem is now available on most streaming platforms.