the point of the vastly extend preparatory phase of this star be bear story seem to be to make ultimate success all the more sublime . summer phoenix be very effective a an inarticulate young woman imprison within herself but never convincing a the stage actress of grow fame who both overcomes and profit from this detachment . even in the lengthy scene of esther act lesson and we never see her carry out the teacher instruction . after suffer through esther ( largely self inflict ) pain in excruciate detail and we be give no persuasive sense of her triumph . the obsessive presence of the heroine pain seem to be mean a a guarantee of aesthetic transcendence . yet the cause of this pain ( poverty and quasi autism and judaism and sexual betrayal ) never come together in a coherent whole . a 163 minute film with a simple plot should be able to knit up it loose end . esther kahn be still not ready to go before an audience .