One Night with the King

This well-made Biblical epic boasts impressive production values, while also eschewing the campy excesses of old-fashioned Hollywood cornfests such as those directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Based not so much on the familiar Old Testament story but, rather, on the historical novel Hadassah (by Tommy Tenney and Mark Andrew Olsen), filmmaker Michael O. Sajbel's One Night with the King follows the rise of an orphaned Jewish peasant girl to the throne of Persia. Hadassah (newcomer Tiffany Dupont) is adopted by her uncle Mordecai (John Rhys-Davies), a dutiful servant of King Xerxes (Luke Goss) in the capital city of Susa. When the angry Xerxes banishes his prideful wife, his minions scour the land in search of a woman worthy of being the new queen. Mordecai suggests Hadassah change her name to Esther and keep her Jewish heritage a secret if she is chosen. Hagai (Tommy “Tiny” Lister), the king's chief eunuch, befriends the young woman and helps her attain the throne just in time to foil a conspiracy involving ambitious Prince Admantha (John Noble) and duplicitous Hamen (James Callis), a Jew-hater. Prominently billed Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole have relatively minor roles—especially the latter—and the film features some precariously cheesy dialogue, but Dupont is both graceful and charming in this period drama celebrating events that would later form the basis for the Jewish holiday of Purim. Recommended. (E. Hulse)