One Night With the King (2006)

19% of critics liked it
(26 reviews)
80% of users liked it
(30,451 ratings)

When a beautiful young slave girl learns that her people are about to fall victim to a horrible act of genocide, she will be forced to choose between realizing her wildest dreams or stepping into the pages of history to embrace her destiny in an epic tale of one young girl who rises from peasant to… More When a beautiful young slave girl learns that her people are about to fall victim to a horrible act of genocide, she will be forced to choose between realizing her wildest dreams or stepping into the pages of history to embrace her destiny in an epic tale of one young girl who rises from peasant to princess to claim the heart of a king. Esther was born an exquisite beauty, but her people have been enslaved by the most powerful kingdom on the planet and her parents executed before she ever had a chance to truly know them. Subsequently taken in by her kindly uncle, a royal scribe, Esther is soon spirited away to the royal palace to take her place in the king's harem. Trouble is stirring in this ancient land, however, and when the queen, Vashti, is banished by the unknowing king, palace princes scramble for a position of power the desperate king determined to live up to, and ultimately avenge the battles waged by his father long ago. Now, as the wheels of destruction are slowly set into motion, a malevolent prime minister who has fallen into favor with the king soon begins to wield a frightening amount of power by calling for the death of Esther's people. With time running out for her entire race, Esther must face her fears and be willing to lay down her life if she is to ever fully realize the plan that God has laid out for her. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: PG, 2 hr. 3 min.
Directed By: Michael O. Sajbel
Genres: Drama, Musical & Performing Arts, Classics

In Theaters: Oct 13, 2006 Wide
On DVD: Jan 30, 2007
Studio: Gener8Xion Entertainment

Critic Reviews

Sam Adams, Los Angeles Times
Why another version of this oft-filmed tale?
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
The movie devolves into a talky, static affair featuring a cast with wildly varying accents and acting abilities.
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
Esther's triumph isn't because of divine intervention. It's her humanity and bravery that make her a legend, and make that One Night worth remembering, 2,500 years later.
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
Unfortunately [O'Toole and Sharif are] separated by five centuries, and never share a scene. For a movie with the most righteous of intentions, that's perhaps the most grievous moviemaking sins of all.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post
The cinematography and sets look great, but the script is a bummer. It's overlong, overwrought and overblown.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
In itself, it's a riveting story. Unfortunately, director Michael Sajbel has envisioned an overwrought Lifetime movie of the week, complete with an Esther who could be a cast member of Laguna Beach and a king notable only for his washboard abs.
Jane Boursaw, Common Sense Media
Brave heroine risks it all in biblical epic.
James Plath, Reel.com
There's plenty of intrigue in this film, but it's muddled. Apparently the Bible isn't the best source for Hollywood anymore.
Frank Lovece, Film Journal International
Less a celebration than a lively college lecture, with CGI standing in for landscapes, panoramas and a cast of thousands.
David Cornelius, eFilmCritic.com
The film is an exercise in overblown and overplayed.
Willie Waffle, WaffleMovies.com
a welcome and honorable telling of the Purim story.
Jules Brenner, Cinema Signals
All the production money in the world isn't going to get this magnificent looking biblical clunker past the critics.
Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
The performances are all solid, although the screenplay frequently bogs down with the complexity of palace intrigues and plots that could have been rendered more consumer-friendly.
Wade Major, Boxoffice Magazine
It's that slavish refusal to detour from the most conservative possible interpretation of such events that ultimately makes One Night With the King little more than a dolled-up, oversimplified sermon.
Dave Tianen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
While Dupont is lovely and sweet, the script leaves her motivations largely open and she's not enough of an actress to fill in the blanks.
Jim Lane, Sacramento News & Review
...visually lavish but dramatically clumsy.
Linda Cook, Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)
Don't Christians deserve quality? Of course...but they won't find it here.
Eric Lurio, Entertainment Insiders
This is one of those religious epics that looks like a religious epic, which is fine as far as it goes, but misses the mark because it doesn't manage to translate the feel of the original to the screen.
Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune
Director Michael O. Sajbel can't rein in the story convolutions or the pompous dialogue of Stephan Blinn's script.

Read all 19 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

Wahida K

The film generally adheres to the main plot of the Biblical narrative. However, the film adds stylistic elements not present in the Biblical story. The Jewish narrative of the relationship between Esther (Tiffany Dupont) and Ahasuerus (treated as Xerxes I of Persia in this, as in many… More
The film generally adheres to the main plot of the Biblical narrative. However, the film adds stylistic elements not present in the Biblical story. The Jewish narrative of the relationship between Esther (Tiffany Dupont) and Ahasuerus (treated as Xerxes I of Persia in this, as in many adaptations) was not a love story, but a forced marriage in which Esther had no choice. The story presents many facets that could have happened rather than strictly sticking to biblical texts.
Bruce B

This was an Outstanding Movie, If you have traveled Western Europe or The Middle east, the scenes were so real, colors excellent, The Costumes were unbeleivable. This was a great movie, Do yourself a big favor get it, thank You Fox Family Video
Ginny

Close to perfect, a rendition of the book of Esther. If I didnt know the story in the book I would have rated this 5 stars. <br><br>its not a bad rendition, I just didnt give it 5 stars cuz I think they missed to "portray" a few things about Esther. Still, yknow.… More
Close to perfect, a rendition of the book of Esther. If I didnt know the story in the book I would have rated this 5 stars. <br><br>its not a bad rendition, I just didnt give it 5 stars cuz I think they missed to "portray" a few things about Esther. Still, yknow. Its a good movie :) Maybe guys would see this as " a girly/religious movie --- and we all know how overly religious, religious movies go", I would beg to differ, this has zest. Sajbel did a great job in directing this.
Panta O

[size=5][color=blue][b]ONE NIGHT WITH THE KING (2006)[/b][/color][/size] [img]http://www.cineplex.com.au/movie/images/movies/large/onenightwiththeking.jpg[/img] [color=brown][b]Epski film u kome se mesaju avantura, intriga i romantika u prici mlade jevrejske devojke, koja menja… More
[size=5][color=blue][b]ONE NIGHT WITH THE KING (2006)[/b][/color][/size] [img]http://www.cineplex.com.au/movie/images/movies/large/onenightwiththeking.jpg[/img] [color=brown][b]Epski film u kome se mesaju avantura, intriga i romantika u prici mlade jevrejske devojke, koja menja ime u Ester da bi bila bezbednija na dvoru kralja Kserksa kome postaje nova kraljica. [img]http://www.8x.com/onenight/images/making_wedding.jpg[/img] Njen ujak Mordokaj, koji je savetuje mudro, spasava kralju zivot, ali ga intrige dovode u zivotnu opasnost... [img]http://www.8x.com/onenight/images/making_08.jpg[/img] Ali kraljica i kralj biraju ljubav iznad kraljevstva i protokola, a ljubav na kraju ispravlja sve greske koje su ucinjene. [img]http://www.8x.com/onenight/images/making_03.jpg[/img] Tiffany Dupont je prekrasna u ulozi Ester, Luke Goss je izmamio nekoliko uzdaha zenske publike tokom filma, a Peter O'Toole i Omar Sharif su svoj deo odradili veoma profesionalno. [img]http://www.8x.com/onenight/images/night2.jpg[/img] Ovo je film koji nekako ponese snove, uzvisi osecanja i ucini da covek poveruje ponovo u pravdu! Preporucio bih ga i onima koji vole citati Bibliju iako je prica dosta razvodnjena sto se toga tice, a u nekim delovima i prespora... ipak, ovo je film koji preporucujem svakome. Ocena, mozda cinim malu nepravdu sto dajem 7/10, ali to mi izgleda nekako fer![/b][/color]
Dannielle A

I was very disappointed that it didn't line up 100 percent biblically. But for being a movie based on the Bible, it could have been a lot worse.
Deb S

I did not feel the chemistry between King Xerxes and Hadassah. I like how she fought to save her people and all that but what's up with her reading to him just one time and then at the next meeting, WHAM, proposal of marriage. It would have being nice to see a follow up after the… More
I did not feel the chemistry between King Xerxes and Hadassah. I like how she fought to save her people and all that but what's up with her reading to him just one time and then at the next meeting, WHAM, proposal of marriage. It would have being nice to see a follow up after the story reading.
Leo L

Interesting.