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One Night With the King brings the story of Esther to life on a scale that will remind viewers of big screen biblical classics like The Ten Commandments. But does director Michael O. Sajbel's film do justice to this beloved Old Testament story?

Is Stephan Blinn's screenplay faithful to Scripture—or to the Tommy Tenney novel of the same title, which varies from the Bible story on some significant points?

Is Tiffany Dupont up to the challenge of portraying this complex character?

Christian film critics are coming to different conclusions.

Russ Breimeier (Christianity Today Movies) says, "One Night with the King may well be the best-looking movie from a Christian company to date, with sumptuous visuals that are both artistic and authentic. … Praise is also deserved for the film's impressive casting."

And yet, Breimeier finds some significant flaws. "Blinn's screenplay … is as complicated as Shakespeare crossed with The History Channel, constantly trying to explain the cultural and historical points without allowing the audience to comfortably sit back and enjoy the storytelling. … It ends up trying to say too much in too little time."

Breimeier concludes that the filmmakers have "made a commendable attempt at telling the story … and giving it sweeping production values to match. … But a good film still needs to communicate its story effectively, even one as familiar as this one is to Christians and Jews. … A tighter script could have made this a classic Bible epic."

The story of Esther could certainly be made into a great film someday, says Steven D. Greydanus (Decent Films). "One Night with the King is not that film. In a number of ways, it's not even that story."

Greydanus says the film has "a distinctly made-for-TV vibe," and while he's impressed with some of the casting, that's about all. He says the script is "home-video hackneyed rather than silver-screen sophisticated," and compares the romantic scenes between Xerxes and Esther to "a smitten schoolboy mooning over the head cheerleader."

Finally, he notes that, while the novel "takes significant liberties with the biblical story," the film departs from the Bible story even further.

Cliff Vaughn (Ethics Daily) says, "Three factors make One Night unsatisfying: the loosey-goosey script, some spotty acting and an ill-conceived musical score."

Matt Page (BibleFilms blog) observes, "It's a far better effort than anyone who watched [the filmmakers'] previous effort (The Omega Code) would have expected. This is one of the most visually impressive epics in years. … Ultimately though, even the most impressive visuals in the world cannot compensate for poor acting. … Sadly, the acting side of things is let down, badly, by poor performances by Luke Goss and Tommy 'Tiny' Lister as Xerxes and Hagai respectively." He also faults the script, and concludes that the movie is "a mixed affair."

Steven Isaac (Plugged In) seems as impressed with what the movie doesn't do than what it does. He says it "soars far more often than it stumbles. While actors' accents are all over the map and the story feels too dense to follow in spots, the action and intrigue is undeniably exciting and compelling—without ever resorting to gratuitous gore, violence, foul language or sexual situations."

"One Night With the King is worth seeing just for the palace, effects, music score, and acting," says Lisa Rice (Crosswalk), "but the true takeaway is the story."

But she could have done without so much attention on the plight of the young eunuchs, whose involvement in the story "competes with the inspirational lessons. … "

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October (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50