To absolutely no one’s surprise, the MPAA gave a PG rating to Black Nativity,
directed by Kasi Lemmons, which is
set to open on November 27, 2013.

The film got the rating for “thematic material, language and a menacing
situation.” What that menacing situation could be is anyone’s guess; but it
can’t be that menacing, since the film is rated PG. (I was holding out hope for a NC-17
rating myself)

Based on Langston
Hughes’ Broadway gospel musical, the film “centers on a young black teen
from Baltimore, who is sent to Harlem by his mother to spend the Christmas
holiday with his estranged grandparents. The boy then learns the real meaning
of faith and family when his grandfather delivers a Christmas Eve sermon and a stylized, dream-sequence retelling of the classic Nativity story.“

The Fox Searchlight release stars Jacob
Latimore, Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Tyrese
Gibson, Luke James, and Nas.

And on the music front, the soundtrack is by Terence Blanchard.