The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

the first observation - the film is magnificent pledge for define/rediscover the Bible as the most important book. not only as religious work but as the tool for discover the world. the film is adaptation of a seductive interpretation of the episode of the rape of Dinah.and this does it the good and the bad aspects. impressive cinematography, beautiful performances, the noble message with feminist flavor. against, maybe, the ordinaries sins of religious films. or the not high accuracy to the book. but it is an impressive film. and this is more than an ordinary virtue.

This is fiction loosely occurring in a historical setting but is not historical fiction (realistically filling in blank areas but not contradicting the historical account). While The Red Tent gives a reasonable depiction of ancient life in the Middle East, it does not follow the Scriptural text (the only account of Dinah's life) and often seems to try to rewrite the Scriptural account of Jacob's family, giving little if any value to Jacob trying to lead his family to follow and worship only Almighty God and forsaking foreign idols. While it is understandable that Jacob's "wives" (2 wives and two unrelated concubines) would find it difficult to forsake their cultural religious practices (something we must all work through), scripture seems to indicate that is what they did after they had left Laban's household and traveled with Jacob. At times, it seems the plot is trying to teach anti-God religious practices as women rebelling against men's teaching about (and invention of) an Almighty God.

Well acted but watch for gross historical inaccuracies as the author must have desperately tried to make the Jews coming into Egypt more of a romantic adventure.True, this is a story of family betrayal and ultimate redemption, but come on, let's not lose sight of historical events occurring as they did.Laban is made out to be a drunken man, instead of the man who tricked Jacob into marrying Leah instead of his beloved Rachel.Leah's sons were evil, but killing a king and destroying their step-sister's opportunity was a bit over the top. After their dastardly deed, they are mentioned in the rest of the picture, but there is no talk of what became of them, unless the author meant letting nature and the years take their course.

All of the negative reviews ignore the reality that this miniseries is not based on the book of Genesis, but the book The Red Tent. Anita Diamant wrote The Red Tent as a feminist Midrash. (Wikipedia defines Midrash as "a method of interpreting biblical stories that goes beyond simple distillation of religious, legal, or moral teachings. It fills in gaps left in the biblical narrative regarding events and personalities that are only hinted at.") She wanted to expand on The Rape of Dinah, a chapter in Genesis. What was Dinah's life before and after that brief chapter? In addition, she asks whether women were totally subservient to men or did they stand up for themselves and wield their own power? Since the people who wrote down the Bible were all men, did they omit or edit out important contributions of women?My critique of the miniseries is that the portrayal of Jacob is too positive, compared to the book. I think this was done to lessen criticism from Orthodox Jews and fundamentalist Christians.