Esther Kahn

Color, NR (mature themes, language, nudity), 142 min., VHS $59.98, DVD $24.98

DVD: deleted scenes, interview with lead actor

Street: Nov. 19, Prebook: now

First Run: L, March 2002, <$1 mil.

Cast: Summer Phoenix (The Laramie Project), Fabrice Desplechin (More), Ian Holm (The Emperor's New Clothes), Frances Barber (Superstition)

WELLSPRING

Story Line: Esther (Phoenix), the daughter of poor Jewish immigrants living in London's squalid East End at the turn of the 20th century, finds meaning in her life when she discovers the theater and develops her natural acting ability. Suave drama critic Phillip Haygard (Desplechin) becomes her mentor--and a good deal more.

Bottom Line: Esther Kahn is a low-key exploration of an actor's blossoming, and more than any English-language movie in recent memory, it provides an insight into the creative process that begins in an intuitive actor's mind. As played by Phoenix, Esther is an alienated child, impoverished both financially and emotionally, who creates a new life for herself in the rarefied atmosphere of the theater. Phoenix makes her initially affectless character compelling, and Holm is wonderful as the kindly, veteran trouper who warns her that she "can't refuse life." Esther Kahn runs much too long, and the pacing is perhaps a bit too measured for many contemporary viewers. However, this is an undeniably engrossing and in some ways exquisite movie that will certainly please the arthouse patrons for whom it was obviously targeted. --Ed Hulse

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