One Night With the King (Blu-ray) Directed by Michael O. Sajbel Studio: 20 th Century Fox Year: 2006 Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 1080p AVC codec Running Time: 123 minutes Rating: PG Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English Subtitles: SDH, Spanish
Region: A MSRP: $ 16.99
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Review Date: March 4, 2013
The Film
2.5/5 When Persian king Xerxes (Luke Goss) decides to banish his headstrong queen (Jyoti Dogra) and choose another from his harem, it falls to Hadassah (Tiffany Dupont) to try to win him not by means of fabulous adornments or coy wiles but by presenting herself simply as a God-fearing girl. Disguising her Jewish origins by taking the name Esther, she wins the king with her simple romantic stories and genuine manner. But little does she know that Prince Admantha (John Noble) has plans for taking control of Persia for himself, and he takes under his wing the vengeful Haman (James Callis) who hates the Jews and will do anything to rise to a position where he can exterminate the entire race. Only with the help of her uncle Mordecai (John Rhys-Davies) and Xerxes' trusted prince Memucan (Omar Sharif) can Esther hope to prevent her husband’s murder or her people’s extinction. Stephan Blinn’s screenplay was based on the novel Hadassah, but his storytelling is a confused jumble of plots that are checkerboarded throughout the overlong two-plus hours running time of the movie. Unless one is thoroughly familiar with the story of Esther, he’s going to spend much of the film’s first half hour putting names and faces together with motivations and back stories in order to make some semblance of a plot from these disparate threads. In effect, the film’s first half mainly deals with Esther’s rise to the position of queen. The second half continues with the stories of Haman’s revenge from a century’s old feud and Admantha’s plan to seize power. Mixed in with this is a too-sudden lovers’ misunderstanding between Xerxes and Esther which makes communication impossible (naturally one word between them could have solved the entire problem but would have cut the film’s running time in half) making the second half of the film one frustrating subplot following another. Money has been spent to deck the story out in the grand and glorious richness of the vaunted Persian Empire, but director Michael Sajbel can’t quite manage to unify the film’s disparate elements into a meaningful whole. As for the performances, the elders have it over their youthful counterparts hands down. John Rhys-Davies, John Noble, and Omar Sharif all give their supporting characters the touch of their great talent and etch believable and interesting characters even when, in Noble’s case especially, the writing is particularly one-note. In the leading parts, Tiffany Dupont seems much too modern to be convincing as a peasant girl of these ancient times. Luke Goss looks more like a buff surfer than the king of Persia, and James Callis overacts all over the place as the obsessed-with-revenge Haman. But these three do have poise in front of a camera. That’s more than can be said for Royal Eunuch Tommy “Tiny” Lister or Jonah Lotan as Esther’s friend Jesse. Their line deliveries often seem stilted and uncomfortable. One word of caution: Peter O’Toole gets top billing on the Blu-ray case. His role as a prophet lasts less than one minute in the early scenes of the film.
Video Quality
4.5/5 The film has been framed at its theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1 (the liner notes claim 1.78:1, but that’s clearly in error) and presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. Apart from a few shots that seem unnaturally soft, the images are very sharp and detailed, and color saturation levels are rich (the yellows during the wedding scene are particularly vivid) with appealing and believable flesh tones. Black levels are mostly excellent. The film has been divided into 24 chapters.
Audio Quality
4.5/5 The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix doesn’t consistently offer a wide spread through the complete soundstage, but at its best, it’s quite impressive. The music by J.A.C. Redford gets ample play in the fronts and rears, and split surround effects are used in key moments to accentuate the film’s epic scale. Bass levels are particularly striking during a forceful moment in the story when Esther’s life is at stake. Dialogue is always easily discernible and has been placed in the center channel.
Special Features
1.5/5 The audio commentary is provided by producers Stephan Blinn, Matthew Crouch, and Richard Cook. The three friends who have worked on a number of projects together have a fine, chatty time discussing the preparation and production of the film commenting specifically about each individual scene and never pausing very long between remarks. There are promo trailers for A Late Quartet and Love’s Christmas Journey.
In Conclusion
2.5/5 (not an average) Religious institutions may find this a more appealing version of the story of Esther than the 1960 Esther and the King, but discerning audiences won’t be fully pleased with either version. Quality of video and audio transfers is unquestionably good despite the film’s numerous shortcomings. Matt Hough Charlotte, NC
