One Night with the King (2006)

This movie is amazing for so many reasons, the cast, the scenery, the story-line and that it parallels what we see happening in the world today. The historical truth about an ancient Persian queen is exactly the same battle happening in Israel today. It's not often that you see a movie that can relate directly with current world affairs and still maintain truth and purity. This movie achieves all this and more. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys history, wholesome entertainment, a great love story or compulsive movie goers. What's great about this movie is that it can appeal to a wide variety of age groups and provides a much needed heroine/role model for young people today. This movie will inspire you and leave you cheering at the end! A must see!!

Fmovies: It was difficult to determine what ax was being ground at any particular moment of this film.

At times it seemed to prophecise the current state of affairs in the Middle East, at others it was a teeny whimsy which foretold the origin of the stereotype "Jewish Princess". There is much invective directed towards the "Greeks" and their alleged attempts at imperialistic democratization, there is no attempt to correlate Greek history with Biblical narrative. If this is am attempt to provoke thought, it can only lead one to wonder how the Hellenes escaped the Holocaust.

In all, the film smacked of the type of inference from scripture which is promulgated on "Christian" network tele-travesties.

Peter O'Toole was wasted in a farcical cameo as Samuel in the opening retrospective. I was saddened to see this monumental actor reduced to a couple of lines and a shake of a saber. It only added insult to the historic lack of recognition this great man of stage and screen has received from the film industry.

Omar Sharif, at least had a role with scenes throughout this boring spectacle. But, he and O'Toole were not utilized to elevate the film above the over-funded sophomoric babble of the script.

Throughout the 124-minutes of this feature I kept wishing that Sarah Silverman had been cast in the lead. An outright O.T. farce, on the order of "The Life of Brian"(I know, a N.T. farce) would have been extremely entertaining. As it is, "One Night..." seemed to drag on like an Arctic Winter. Nothing was illuminated.

The sad thing about this movie is that the cast is SO great that you expect to have a great movie. But the plot is sketchy and disjointed, as are the transitions between scenes. The biggest problem as I see it is that with such a LARGE cast it does not really become clear until the movie is half over who is who. Jonothan Rhys-Davies is awesome as always, and there was not nearly enough Peter O'Toole for this fan. John Noble did a great job, and James Callis was terrific, wicked and relentless. Despite this, the movie had plot weaknesses, was confusing, pacing was too slow at times, the language was often flowery, and Luke Goss as Xerxes was just awful, his king dithering and weak. See it on cable, not really worth the money of a ticket. What a pity.

One Night with the King fmovies. Please accept this letter as constructive criticism and not bashing. I am a dedicated viewer and lover of TBN, CBN, all it's programs and partners and most importantly the Lord!

Though the publicity and PR were excellent I have to honestly say that I was highly disappointed with the movie One Night with the King.

The start of the movie was very uninformative on the reason why King Xerses had Vashti dismissed as Queen. As a believer and for those who are not I think it key for the audience to understand how the people of that day and country lived and exactly why Vashti was being removed as Queen. This really in essence speared the way for Ester to become Queen.

I also feel that the audience did not get a good sense of passion between Xerses and Ester. Though this move was rated for audiences of all ages I feel that could have done a better job of showing just how much Xerses loved Ester. He loved her so much that he would have done and did anything for her. I really did not feel the love. Also, this really is not meant to be a put down but I don't think the physical features of the character playing Ester was right in this movie. The Bible story tells of a woman that is so beautiful. I recall reading that after the decision to depose Vashti as queen the council decided to have a beauty contest and invite all the most beautiful women from all 127 provinces so that the king could select the most beautiful woman to be the new queen. In the reading Ester was gorgeous in form and features. She was radiant, glowing, and glamorous. Again this is not meant to be a put down but the actress playing the role does not represent Ester physically. The movie also did not emphasize on the amount of preparation that was needed for these candidates to get ready for the king.

In addition the part in the move where Ester was running in the rain to get to Xerses to confess her true nationality and to save her people built up the audience but then nothing happened. Ester just fell in Xerses' arms and that was it. This definitely needed more substance. The audience needed to see just how much King Xerses loved Ester. The Bible indicates that when Ester approached the King without an invitation he faced her with a sword in his hand. The king gestured for her to touch the tip of the golden sword. When she did this she knew that she was safe. In the movie the king did not ask Ester of her heart's desire. The Bible indicates that the king said, "Queen Ester. You look absolutely ravishing today. What would you want from me? I will give anything that you want, up to half of the kingdom." The movie seems to show anger and uncertainly in the Kings eyes. I actually do not recall any part in the movie where King Xerses says "What do you want Ester? I will give you up to half of the kingdom". This was crucial. I don't feel that the King's deep love for Ester was really portrayed during any part of this movie.

Overall I felt lost during the movie. This was not only due to the fact that I know the story pursuant to the Bible. I felt lost through most of the move and found myself struggling to understand what was happening and what part of the story was being shown. If I feel this way as a believer I have to assume that the non believer may have even fallen asleep or given up on this movie.

Again, this is not mean to be bashing but I really want to give my honest and heartfelt opinion which I share with my Christian friends who have also seen the movie. I would be a hy

This film does have a wonderful story to tell, and the location shots (it was filmed in India to imitate ancient Persia) are beautiful. That's the good news. The bad news is that the actual script for the story is weak and much of the dialog is stilted. Some of the acting is truly sub-par, although the girl who plays Hadassa/Esther really makes the most of some very bad situations script-wise. I felt that the direction was heavy handed in much of the film, but some gorgeous recreations and CG backdrops almost make up for this. Also,the fact that Peter O'Toole is advertised as a "star" of this film is very misleading. He appears in maybe five minutes of footage at the beginning, and nothing more. Overall, I thought the film had good intentions, but not enough time and effort put into a convincing script.

This story had all the elements that should make a movie attractive... action, intrigue, romance, a little suspense... but it was wasted on this film. The production was uneven, hopping from one seemingly unrelated scene to another, many of them making our leading lady appear at best adolescent and at worst delusional. The music was not well chosen for the action, and the directing was obvious (thunder crashes as Esther delivers what was supposed to be a dramatic line). The acting was mostly disappointing, with fine performances by John Rhys-Davies, Omar Sharif and a few others, but pretty amateur efforts from the rest of the cast. In all, the only thing I really enjoyed were the period costumes.