When I first heard about this film I was very excited! I love the story of Esther and the fact that they were making a movie..not just a Focus on the Family film that could only be found at a Christian Bookstore, but a film that I could actually see in a normal theater. With a semi-impressive cast (people I had actually heard of...who were in Hollywood films, whoa!)...and the trailer even looked promising. Ha! Famous last words.
The film opens with some backstory...to explain the bitterness of Haman (Callis). Basically all his relatives were slaughtered by King Saul at the urging of his prophet Samuel (O'Toole, totally underused).
I shouldn't have to explain the plot, but basically the King (Goss) is gets some bad advice and divorces Queen Vashti (Jyoti Dogra), so he looks for a new one. The available/attractive women are rounded up so he can pick the next queen. One of his options is Hadassah (Dupont), a young attractive Jewish girl. Her uncle Mordecai (Rhys-Davies) suggests that she change her name to Esther so she won't stand out from the rest of the girls. She ends up befriending the head Eunuch, Hegai (Lister) who helps her attain the position of queen.
The costumes are beautiful, they may be the best part of the film. The film is sappy. Esther has two love interests: the first is Jesse (Jonah Lotan) who is her childhood sweetheart and the second is the King. Jesse is an unnecessary character. The King, just doesn't work. He has a decent body, but in general he isn't the dreamboat they act like he is.
They had good objectives and I admire that they tried, but what were they thinking? They added cheesy love stories to appeal to mass audiences, but in general it just makes the film more like a teenage girls dream. And they strayed way too much from the story. In general it was just a bunch of bad decisions...yes, it works in some cases, but in general it becomes a tween chick-flick. Ugh!
--: it's a clean movie, no sex and violence, so it's the kind of movie you can take your teenage daughter, sister, cousin, whatever to and not worry about content
--: the costumes and locales are extravagant and worthwhile, but they don't outweigh the rest of the film
One Night with the King (2006) 123 min
Rating: PG for violence, some sensuality and thematic elements.
Director: Michael O. Sajbel
Starring: Tiffany Dupont as Hadassah/Esther
Luke Goss as King Xerxes
John Noble as Prince Admantha
Omar Sharif as Prince Memucan
John Rhys-Davies as Mordecai
Tommy Lister as Hegai
James Callis as Haman the Agagite
Peter O'Toole as Samuel the Prophet
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