One Night with The King

Luke Goss as the king crowns Tiffany Dupont the new Queen Esther in 'One Night With the King,' a Gener8Xion Entertainment release.

"One Night With the King" is a surprisingly satisfying attempt to revive the Old Hollywood tradition of lavishly appointed Biblical epics aimed at mainstream auds. Pic has a much broader appeal than earlier product produced by Gener8Xion Entertainment ("The Omega Code," "Carman: The Champion"), and conceivably could attract ticketbuyers who have ignored other recent pics aimed primarily at devout churchgoers. Indeed, even a few diehard non-believers may be won over by the considerable charisma of top-billed newcomer Tiffany Dupont.
Strictly speaking, pic's source material isn't Holy Scripture, but rather a historical novel -- "Hadassah" by Tommy Tenney and Mark Andrew Olsen -- based on the Book of Esther. Even so, scripter Stephan Blinn sticks fairly close to the original, divinely inspired scenario while tracing the rise of an orphaned Jewish peasant girl who becomes the wife of King Xerxes of Persia.

Hadassah (Dupont), an appealingly spirited gamine, was adopted by her uncle, Mordecai (John Rhys-Davies), a dutiful scribe to King Xerxes (Luke Goss) in the capital city of Susa. Fortuitously -- or, perhaps more accurately, miraculously -- Hadassah is in the right place at the right time when an angry Xerxes banishes his prideful wife, and sends his minions throughout the land to abduct worthy candidates to be the new queen.
Mordecai suggests his niece keep her Jewish heritage a secret if she is seized -- which, of course, she is -- and enhances the imposture by re-naming her Esther. All in all, a good career move.
Esther immediately stands out in the eyes Hagai (Tommy "Tiny" Lister), the king's chief eunuch. Hagai befriends the young woman and takes steps to ensure Xerxes will be equally impressed. He is.

Esther becomes queen just in time to impede the progress of two conspirators -- Prince Admantha (John Noble), a sly fox with designs on the throne, and Hamen (James Callis), a dark schemer with a long-standing grievance against Jews.

Prince Memucan (Omar Sharif), a loyal member of the court, plays a major role in undermining Admantha. But Hamen very nearly launches a program to exterminate all Jews in the kingdom before Esther is able to open Xerxes' eyes to his treachery.

Helmer Michael O. Sajbel occasionally pushes too hard, especially when he bedecks Hamen with a swastika-like herald to underscore the plotter's anti-Semitism. (Fortunately, the obviousness of the symbolism doesn't mar Callis' effective performance.) And as often happens in this sort of epic, characters are given to flowery flights of speechifying.

However, the well-cast players infuse even borderline-campy dialogue with persuasive conviction. Sharif, in a small but key role, sounds aptly impassioned when he asks: "Is the past so mighty that we must destroy of brethren to escape its grasp?" And the mountainous Lister conveys a ineffably teddy-bearish likeability as he rumbles lines -- "You think a eunuch cannot know love?" -- that would choke most other actors.

Despite his prominent billing, Peter O'Toole appears in only one scene -- with a nicely explosive flash of righteous fury -- as the prophet Samuel.

As Esther/Hadassah, Dupont exudes charm, grace and (when necessary) gravitas, along with a hint of incipient star power. Goss is appropriately regal, Rhys-Davies is heartily formidable. Noble slices the ham generously as the hiss-worthy is Admantha.

Filmed on location in India, "One Night With the King" maintains a steady but never stodgy pace while flaunting an opulence that belies its reported $20 million budget. Credit cinematographer Steven Bernstein ("Like Water for Chocolate"), costumer Neeta Lulla and production designer Aradhana Seth for providing sufficient movie magic to help revive a genre that, in recent years, has been relegated to broadcast and cable TV.

Review by JOE LEYDON, Variety Magazine

The Nativity Story - In Theaters Dec. 1

As one of their blogger-reviewers, I received an invitation from Grace Hill Media to attend a private screening of New Line Cinema's new movie, The Nativity Story. Two thumbs way, way up. I'll never look at a nativity set the same way again.Over the years Hollywood has tried many times to make movies of Biblical stories, though there hasn't been a serious attempt for a long time. Most previous Hollywoodized versions of the Bible (for instance The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Robe, or King of Kings) tended to take the humanity out of Jesus or other Biblical characters. They always seemed to have this weird far-away look in their eyes and a funny glow around their head.

The Nativity Story does a wonderful job of reminding the viewers that the people we read about in the Biblical story were real people living real lives who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances. The movie explores the dilemma they were in and how they likely had to deal with it.The story begins with Mary's life as a young girl living and working in her family's home. In many Hollywood productions, Mary is played by a much older actress than the real Mary, who was probably only 15 or so years old. The Mary of this movie is a young girl, and Joseph a little older man. The casting seems right for the story. In fact, the casting throughout the movie is done well. The movie is not just a dry retelling, but includes a lot of scenes of the day-to-day life in Israel at that point in history, and some humor as well.

The Magi sort of become the comic foils of the movie, though their role is very serious as well. There is a lot of interesting information about their place in the nativity story, and the convergence of planets which gave rise to the Christmas star which the wise men followed.We know that Joseph and Mary came up from Nazareth to Bethlehem, but I think we forget that it was a journey of nearly 100 miles, all of it on foot. The film gives a good representation of what that trip would have been like and the sights they might have seen along the way.

The movie takes an interesting approach in dealing with angels. The same angel appears to Mary, Joseph and the shepherds, though I couldn't get away from the fact that he looked just like country singer Eddie Rabbit from the 70's. In addition, only one angel appears to the shepherds even though the scripture describes a "heavenly host" (not "the" heavenly host).The only time the picture takes on a bit of an old time Hollywood mystical appearance is when the baby Jesus is born and the star(s) cast a beam of light directly into the stable. But even in that scene, I was struck by the sight of Mary giving birth with only Joseph and some animals in attendance. We forget what it must have been like for people in that day.

There are some moments which could have involved graphic violence, but thankfully the filmmakers chose to use implied violence and no blood rather than graphic scenes that would be much more difficult to watch. It's not Passion of the Christ, that's for sure.Bottom line - go see it, and if possible go see it this opening weekend. Opening weekends are very important in the Hollywood world in helping convince them that this kind of film is worth making. A slow open could make movie companies hesitant to try something of this quality again.Take your unchurched friends as well. I think this film could make a significant impact on the lives of nonbelievers. It's that well done.
Source: Holycoast.com:TheNativityStory