Agora

Rating:

Rated: Not available.
Release Date: 2010-05-28
Starring: Alejandro Amenábar, Mateo Gil
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA, Spain
Official Website: http://www.agoralapelicula.com/

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One of my favorite directors in cinema is Alejandro Amenabar (The Sea Inside, The Others, Abre Los Ojos) of Chilean-Spanish descent. His new film, Agora, is perhaps his most ambitious movie of his career, but not necessarily will it be his most popular.

The plot centers on the life of the philosopher Hypatia, played brilliantly by Rachel Weisz, who lived in Alexandria in the 4th century AD when Christianity had been adopted by the Roman Empire and was displacing the prevailing paganism as a religion. Orestes (Isaac), a slave who clings to the new religious doctrine with the hope of finding in it the aspirations of freedom he craves and one improtant matter, he loves his master and teacher Hypatia.

The theme of Agora to me is fascinating, provocative and intellectually stimulating, but I will not deny that the pacing is dead slow and its middle arc a bit boring. Technically, the art direction and costume design is breathtaking. The performances are worthy of applause. It contains enough conflict and action to make it commercial. Amenábar has created his Quo Vadis, but I think in the end, it is a difficult film to digest for the masses.