Patience pays off.  It may not seem like it if you have been reading my reviews of Christmas movies this year.  If so, you will probably note a growing sense of impatience.  It is a feeling I cannot deny.  My family is no help in this situation.  When I vent my frustrations over the repetitiveness of seasonal cinema, they ask why I bother.  They make a fair point.  There is nothing compelling me to do what I do.  This is true of Faith as well.  Belief in God is a choice, not something you are forced to do.  God wants a relationship with us because He knows it is best for us.  This sounds like an oversimplification, and it would not be wrong to say so.  The answer to why we do the things we do is often beyond us, but it seems right.  In my case, I feel God’s hand upon me, seeing my blog as a service to Catholics trying to navigate the film portion of our complex modern culture.  Hopefully, you will see these themes as I describe to you what has been the best Christmas movie I have seen this year, Feast of the Seven Fishes (2019).

When it comes to Christmas time in the predominantly Italian-American community in West Virginia coal country, it is about preparing for the Feast of the Seven Fishes.  I will get more into what that means later.  For now, we meet the young twenty-something, aspiring artist Tony Oliverio (Skyler Gisondo).  Even though he has been accepted into art school, he doubts he will ever go anywhere with his painting.  This is because his father, Mr. Oliverio (Tony Bingham), owns a successful ethnic grocery store in town and Tony spends much of his time helping.  While out on a delivery, he is found by his cousin, Angelo (Andrew Schultz), who eventually gets Tony to go out tonight despite how busy he is with the upcoming feast.  One of the tactics used to convince Tony is that Angelo’s girlfriend, Sarah (Jessica Darrow), will be asking one of her friends to come too.  That friend, by the way, is Beth Claremont (Madison Iseman).  She is what the Italian community refers to as a “Cake Eater.”  They are non-Catholic people of a higher socio-economic status.  Beth’s socially equal boyfriend, Prentice (Allen Williamson), decided to ignore having Christmas at her parent’s house as he promised in favor of a ski trip.  Though she had been asked to come along, her anger stems from his snubbing of her family.  Her mother, Mrs. Claremont (Lisa Velten Smith), tries to defend Prentice, mainly because he is wealthy.  With all this on her mind, Beth meets Sarah, and they catch up before the night commences.  Once Angelo has the two girls, they pick up Tony, whose brains they say will be perfect for the Ivy Leaguer that is Beth.  While this is true, they connect on her openness to his culture and his sensitivity to her feelings.  That nice guy reputation, however, is tested before the night is over.  At the bar where they are drinking, another patron informs Tony that his ex-girlfriend, Katie (Addison Timlin), is about to strip at a gentleman’s club.  Even though they are no longer a couple, Tony goes to the establishment to stop her, getting a black eye for his efforts.  Because Katie is not over their relationship, this had all been a ploy to get his attention.  While she is successful in getting him there, she does not manage to convince him to fool around with her in the bathroom.  As for Beth, she takes his act as a chivalrous one, and they end up at Tony’s grandparent’s house where he uses their shed as a makeshift studio.  The chivalry continues as, instead of putting any moves on her, he simply covers her with a blanket as she falls asleep.  In the morning, Tony’s great-grandmother, Nonna (Lynn Cohen), seeks Tony out to drive her to the store, and finds him and Beth sleeping in shed.  Despite them being on separate chairs, she freaks out, which is quite startling for Beth and Tony.  As such, Nonna will not even ride with the two as his Uncle Frankie (Joe Pantoliano) drives Tony to work and Beth home.  On the way to Beth’s house, in addition to dealing with the club manager that punched Tony, Beth accepts Uncle Frankie’s invitation to spend Christmas Eve with the family.  Mrs. Claremont is not happy about this, but Beth goes anyway.  She is at Tony’s grandparent’s house when he arrives to begin helping to cook the feast.  Beth fits in with everyone and seems to have a great time, even taking Nonna to Midnight Mass.  She and Tony are about to kiss outside when Prentice suddenly appears, having been brought there by Mrs. Claremont.  Prentice does not have kind things to Beth, prompting Tony to give the intruder a right cross.  All the same, Beth goes with her family, leaving a saddened Tony and Nonna giving her the “evil eye.”  In the morning, there is a knock at the door.  Opening it, Tony finds Katie, who has come to give him back the varsity jacket he had given her while they were dating.  She had received some advice from Juke Jukowski (Josh Helman), the local savant, about her life and how she needs to move on from Tony.  The jacket is a sign of her readiness to do so, but she also suggests that Tony is also holding himself back from his goals.  With that, he has a talk with his grandfather, Johnny (Paul Ben-Victor), who had started the grocery store, about his desire to go to art school.  Johnny gives his blessing, but with the command to take out the trash from the previous night.  While doing so, he finds Beth.  They finally share their kiss and the film ends.

With the way Feast of the Seven Fishes ends with a kiss, you might think this is just another Christmas romantic comedy.  There is romance in it, and parts of it are funny, but I am here to suggest to you that there is more going on in this film.  With others of its ilk, they feature the aspects of the holidays against which I have railed in many recent reviews.  In fact, Beth speaks to this sort of thing, talking about how Christmas is a blank canvas for people to make up their own traditions.  This Catholic was, instead, more interested in Tony’s explanation of what goes into the title event.  After going through all the “fish,” some of which are mollusks and shellfish, Beth asks about the number.  He speculates that it might have something to do with the Seven Sacraments, which is partially true.  Either way, this Catholic is here to tell you what the feast is about from a Faith perspective.  Like so much of Catholicism, it comes from a tradition of abstaining from meat on Christmas Eve.  If this sounds familiar, it is because we also do not eat red meat on Fridays during Lent.  Some extend to all Fridays, something to which I try to adhere to as well.  The association is with the sacrifice of Jesus’ flesh on Good Friday, who gave himself up as the Paschal Lamb.  That had been the thinking for centuries, but Modern Catholic thought says that any kind of sacrifice you can make on a Friday is acceptable.  As such, because Jesus was born on Christmas for that eventual giving up of His life for the sake of the world, we try to follow His example.  Giving up red meat may seem a pale offering for such an act, but it is something.  God does not require grand gestures.  Only a heart turned to Him, and that being given of our own free will, is what He wants.  For Tony, he is willing to trade in a potential future as an artist for his family, but ultimately does not have to do so.  It is his Christmas gift, and getting Beth, too, does not hurt.

Equally, taking part in traditions like the Feast of the Seven Fishes does not hurt.  Though the movie is not specifically about Catholicism, and there are a few images in it that I would rather not see, it does speak to the kinds of things protestants like to tell us have nothing to do with the Faith.  If you watch this film, which I do recommend, I will show you Faith in action if not in name.