Review: Agora

       Hypatia was a 4^th century Egyptian philosopher. She is the first historically noted woman in mathematics, and was the head of the Platonist in Alexandria where she taught philosophy and astronomy. She made significant achievements in the field of science, achievements which are made even more impressive given the fact that she was a woman in a time when women were not expected or even encouraged to pursue any form of academic achievement. She was eventually murdered by christians after being accused of being a witch and subsequently was almost entirely forgotten. Her story could be the a very intriguing film, and Agora makes an attempt to be that film. Unfortunately, while the film is very intellectual, it lacks the heart that would make this film compelling.

       Agora is named after the public meeting place, like a town square, in ancient Greek and Roman cities. During the period that this film takes place, the agora of Alexandria is a hot bed of religious debate between the pagans, who believed in the Roman Pantheon, and early christians. Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) doesn't care about these debates, insisting that there is more that unites the people of Alexandria than divides them. Instead, she continues her lessons and studies the stars, trying to solve the mystery of the Earth's orbit. The christians decide to tear down the heart of paganism in Alexandria, it's famous library. Hypatia tries to save as many scrolls from the library as she can but her efforts are ultimately fruitless and christianity becomes the dominant religion in the city. Time passes and soon tensions grow between the christians and the jews of Alexandria. Again, Hypatia absolves herself from involvement in this conflict, but she does give advice to her former pupil, Orestes, who has now become the regent of Alexandria. He tries to defend fer from accusations of witchcraft but is ultimately unsuccessful.

       The film benefits from being very accurate to the events that occurred in Alexandria during this period. It is very objective and does a good job not taking the side of any of the pagans, the christians or the jews. Usually in sword and sandal epics such as this, the christians are portrayed as the heroes, but here all sides are equally blinded by the idea that those who disagree with them deserve death. However, the rest of the movie is terrible. The film manages to philosophy, history, hysteria, and a love triangle and still be quite boring. There is a false ending about half-way through the film where you think, “Ok, it's over that wasn't so bad.” But then it continues for another hour that just seems to drag by. The movie is only two hours long, but it felt like much, much more. The acting isn't completely terrible as there are a few decent scenes, but on the whole it is very uneven. Because our main character is so detached from the main conflict between religions, the audience is just as detached. Because of this I didn't find myself caring about what was going on in this movie and I was just bored watching a history lesson. In the end, this movie is all brains and no heart.