The Kasi Lemmons directed forthcoming movie "Black Nativity" opens up a Pandora box of pleasant surprises.  Big screen beau Angela Bassett who has fronted Blockbuster smashes such as "What's Love Got to Do With It," "Waiting to Exhale" and "Boesman and Lena" now plays a grandmother and a pastor's wife.  Instead of prancing on the stage, Queen of Hip Hop Mary J. Blige now plays an angel who dons her white leather maxi coat, her matching stiletto-heeled boots and a pair of wings heralding some inner city shepherds to worship the baby Jesus.  "Black Nativity," which opens on the big screen this Thanksgiving, is based on Langston Hughes 1961 Gospel musical.  With an ensemble cast of the biggest names in both the music and movie business such as Forest Whittaker, Tyrese Gibson, Jennifer Hudson, Jacob Latimore, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Nas and the aforementioned Blige and Bassett, "Black Nativity" is destined to ring in coffers and loads of movie stubs.

While many soundtracks these days have songs tangentially connected to the movie's plotline, this is not the case here.  Thanks to the soundtrack's executive producer Raphael Saadiq (D'Angelo, Joss Stone & Whitney Houston), the 12 cuts here expound on the movie's major turning points, retelling the whole movie's salient narrative touch stones from the beginning of the end.  The story revolves around a struggling Baltimore single mother (played by Jennifer Hudson) who cannot make ends meet.  So, one day she and her teenage son Langston (played by heart throb Jacob Latimore) find themselves homeless.  Unable to put a roof above the both of them, she sends her son to her estranged parents, living in New York, for Christmas. Jennifer Hudson, who rose to fame as a finalist on the third season of "American Idol," gets the first of three new Raphael Saadiq's co-writes "Test of Faith."  "Test of Faith," is arguably the gem of this record, a smothering ballad of elegiac proportions; the song captures all the tear-inducing moments of a mother who has had to part ways with her son because of her financial constrains.

Yet, when the 16 year-old Langston gets to Harlem, he is constantly at logger heads with his grandparents, the Rev. Cornell and his wife Angela Cobbs (played by Forest Whittaker and Angela Bassett).  Langston finds the law-restricting and Jesus-babbling grandparents a chore. "Motherless Child" and "Coldest Town" detail for us some of Langston's feelings as Jacob Latimore takes the lead on these cuts.  "Coldest Town," written by Kasi Lemmons, Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson, is a steely hip hop ballad that finds Latimore putting his Usher-like vocal chops to great effect.  Though we may have seen Angela Bassett in countless number of movies, it's a treat to hear her sing on disc.  Here we get that once in a blue moon chance when she shares the microphone with Hudson on "He Loves Me Still."  Though not as confident and as supple as Hudson on the vocal front, Bassett's alto is quite heartfelt on this simple yet poignant piano ballad that expounds on the grace of Jesus Christ.

Even though Langston leaves his grandparents and tries to make his way home, en route he finds his faith tested again as he re-discovers for himself the meaning of Christmas, forgiveness and healing.  One of those agents that assist in such a transformation is Platinum Fro (played by Mary J. Blige).  Blige and rapper Nas take the lead on the traditional "Rise Up Shepherd and Follow."  And one of the movie's other spotlight is on how Langston's grandparents never for a moment give up on their grandson. Their spirit of ardent prayer is magnified when Bassett joins Whittaker on a rousing rendition of the Gospel favorite "Jesus is on the Mainline."  With copious lessons we can glean about family, prayer, faith in Jesus and the real meaning of Christmas, "Black Nativity" in short is an enjoyable sermon on the big screen.  And its accompanying soundtrack takes these lessons and dons them in unforgettable melodies and heartfelt lyrics delivered by some of the biggest names in the entertainment world.