culture. ish. page two

The makers of this film had great source material for this. You can read the book of Esther in less time than it takes this movie to draw out the mundane parts of the story.

The film doesn't even qualify as a good Sunday-school lesson. The important parts of the story are pushed to the margins to make the film the story of one woman's courage to change the heart of King Xerxes (also one of the stars of the film 300). At times the film seems forced into trying to be a romantic tale. I found the interpretation of the story to be trite (there are overt references to Haman being a Nazi; red and black flags with a frightening symbol on them).

Where the text allows for high drama, the audience of the film gets bad montages and didactic narration. I have always found the story of Esther to be fascinating, but this version makes it seem absurd.

--gpv