MOVIE REVIEW

One Night with the King

By Elliott Ryan
Guest Reviewer

What's This?

CBN.com – With the success of Passion of the Christ in 2004, Hollywood has seen the rebirth of a film genre that was once very popular – the Biblical epic. The most recent movie of this genre to be released is One Night with the King, which opened at ninth place in the box office rankings for its opening weekend (October 13- 15, 2006). The film grossed $4,326,000 over the weekend, which is impressive considering it opened in only 909 theaters (the highest grossing film this weekend aired in over 3,000 theaters nationwide).

The film tells the Biblical story of Esther, a Jewish orphan who becomes queen of Persia. It follows the plot of the novel Hadassah: One Night With the King by Tommy Tenney and Mark Andrew Olsen, which is based on the book of Esther. While the film does not follow the Biblical narrative completely faithfully, the film does a great job of communicating the heart and message of the historical account.

One of the producers of the film is Matthew Crouch who has been involved in creating movies for evangelical Christians since the 1990s. Crouch is also the son of televangelist Paul Crouch.

Christians and Jews alike are very familiar with this Old Testament story. Esther (played here by Tiffany Dupont) is raised by her uncle Mordecai. When Xerxes, King of Persia (played by Luke Goss), divorces his queen for insubordination, he and his advisers create a plan to audition young women to find a new queen. Esther is eventually chosen but hides her ethnicity as a Hebrew because of the anti-Semitism exhibited by many Persians. When the safety of the Hebrew people is threatened, Esther must decide whether or not to risk her own safety and position by speaking up to prevent the genocide.

In addition to the relatively unfamiliar lead actors, the film also features performances by veteran actors Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif and John Rhys-Davies.

For believers in the one true God of the Judeo-Christian faiths, this film will be an inspirational portrayal of a beloved Old Testament story. The costumes and set locations look great and assist modern viewers in escaping to this ancient civilization. Some less familiar with the story may find it difficult to relate to the traditions of Persian royalty. But the filmmakers have done a great job of attempting to communicate a tale of God’s providence.

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