Review of One Night with the King (2006) by Sam E — 19 Sep 2007

This epitomizes the best and worst of Christian films today. At its core, this liberal retelling of the well-known story of Esther, the Jewish Queen of Persia is an excellent one. The new plot elements the Director and screenwriter draw in are (for the most part) great twists and extensions of the beloved Bible story. The sets, costumes, and other period props are detailed and convincing, rare for a low-budget movie set in the ancient world.

The breakdown occurs with the Director. Michael O. Sajbel did a positively atrocious job directing about 90% of this movie. At this point he was still a pretty new director (imdb credits "One Night" as his 5th directorial duty) so I suppose the amateurism is understandable to a degree. There is little fluidity to the scenes and transitions, particularly in the film's first half, and Sajbel doesnt seem to know when to cut a shot, either letting the camera linger for much to long or killing it before the scene has had a chance to sink in. It's highly annoying, especially when the movie is overlong at 2 hours. The cast is a well-picked assortment of characters you may recognize from other major motion pictures (rare for this kind of movie), and the lead role is given a sweet (if not completely convincing) treatment by Tiffany Dupont.

All in all, this movie was a great idea and has a lot of positives going for it, but it would have been a runaway success, I think, if it had gotten the kind of direction it deserved.

"One Night with the King" is an unfortunate blend of hit and miss.