recommended

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The two earlier movies, "Esther and the King" & "One Night with the King" are not more than ten % to twenty-five % honest & accurate! This one is by far, the best of all! Actress, Ginger Rogers portrayed Esther in one of those two earlier movies, I typed (up above & on to line of paragraph). I strongly want to own a DVD of Esther (1999)! PS: An additional fact to another IMDb member & commenter: Esther is not the only Biblical book that "God" is not listed/written in it! Very few know that Song of Solomon does not have "God" written/listed in it, either, (while so many know "God" is not written Esther, if not every body). In Sincerest Honesty. Additional facts of Mordecai, he is also in Ezra, as a new temple was to be built (after the Jews' 70 years of captivity, was ended by King Cyrus).

The accuracy of the movie is pretty high. Even the dialog has quoted large chunks of the Bible and in many parts, they have attempted to extract and paraphrased many verses. It is quite biblical. I am inspired.Here are the parts which are most inspiring:1) Mordecai wailing in the streets, crying and praying. It depicted a man without any inhibition when it comes to expressing his emotions to God. It was recorded in the Bible and the movie depicted it accurately.2) The emphasis on the 3 days and nights fasting with praying was clearly depicted and was again very inspiring. Many verses from other parts of the Old Testament were quoted in their prayers. It relates fasting with a national catastrophe. 3) In the end, the wooing of the king by Esther was again accurately presented. Through her gutsy courage to appear before the court uninvited and throwing the two banquets for the king and Haman, the final climax was accurately depicted again.The movie, in short, was done to inspire and uplift the viewer spiritually. Well done and God bless!

This was the second version of the story of Esther that I have watched (third if you count the VeggieTales version), and it was much better than the other I'd watched. As far as I can remember the other Esther I watched--"One Night With the King"--had poor acting, and I was not pleased with it's adaptation of the Bible story. I was concerned that I'd find the same problems with this version; however, I was pleasantly surprised. "Esther" follows the Biblical account very well (which is one of the most romantic and exciting Bible stories--it has its own book of the Bible); in fact it brought some aspects of the story to light that I'd never noticed before. The actress playing Esther was perfect for the role (in fact, all the casting was well done). There was beautiful romance, but it did not "cross the lines" (in other words, minimal skin showed), and my mother and I fully enjoyed watching it together.

This film is very true to the Book of Esther found in the Bible. The action follows the story (as told in the Bible) scene for scene and even much of the dialogue is the same as the original ("If it pleases the king..."). Highly recommended as a teaching tool in a religious school.