Judy Greer is pleasantly persuasive as Grace, a Christian wife and mother, in a mostly successful Christian comedy, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024). I’m unfamiliar with the 1972 novel it’s based on, but reportedly the movie’s jokes are those in the book and it was wise of the filmmakers to retain them. They’re sufficiently funny.

Grace is central to the story but so is young Imogene (Beatrice Schneider), the atrociously behaved sister of several atrociously behaved siblings. What goes on with her, finally, smacks of conversion, maybe of future conversion. The kid actors are winsome, and the directing of Dallas Jenkins is as good as one would expect from the creator-director of the TV show, The Chosen. I hope Jenkins will make additional movies.