Synopsis
A Jewish girl in 19th century London dreams of becoming a stage actress.
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Cast
- Summer PhoenixEsther Kahn
- Ian HolmNathan Quellen
- Fabrice DesplechinPhilippe Haygard
- Akbar KurthaSamuel Kahn
- Frances BarberRivka Kahn
- László SzabóYtzhok Kahn
- Hilary SestaBuba
- Claudia SoltiMina Kahn
- Berna RaifBecky Kahn
- Arnold BrownRabbi
Recommendations
- 90
The A.V. Club
Summer Phoenix has a screen presence that's simultaneously distancing and transfixing, an inscrutability that makes her seem either mysterious or a complete blank. - 80
TV Guide Magazine
Ranks among the best films ever made about the acting profession. - 60
L.A. Weekly
Brilliantly edited and gorgeously shot, Esther Kahn is a dream to look at and, courtesy of Howard Shore's minor chords and high-strung strings, definitely something to hear. - 60
New Times (L.A.)
At 145 minutes it's a bit of a stretch, but the cinematographer is the great Eric Gautier ("Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train," "Pola X") and the score by Howard Shore is far superior to his Oscar-winning "Lord of the Rings." - 50
Slate
It's a charcoal draft of a movie -- magically allusive on some levels and utterly opaque on others, a strange combination of the overexplicit and the unwritten. - 50
Christian Science Monitor
Desplechin wants to film an adventure of the human spirit in the manner of a Hitchcockian drama, but he doesn't have a solid enough grasp of English culture to equal the complexity of his French productions like "The Sentinel" and "The Life of the Dead." - 40
The New York Times
It is also possible that the problem lies not with Mr. Desplechin but with Ms. Phoenix. Her Esther is a fascinating mixture of passivity and ferocity, but it's not clear that she has the range to show both sides of the character. - 30
Village Voice
This is a movie about the nature of acting -- or, more specifically, the nature that creates an actress -- centered on what appears to be a spectacularly unconvincing title-role performance.
