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Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Agora

AGORA (Alejandro Amenábar). 126 minutes. Opens Friday (June 11). For venues, trailers and times, see Movies. Rating: NN


You have to give director Alejandro Amenábar credit for trying to mix ideas about science and philosophy into what feels like a compressed Euro TV miniseries about religious conflicts in fourth-century Alexandria. And, yes, Agora explains the roots of the word “agoraphobia.”[rssbreak]

Rachel Weisz plays the pagan philosopher and mathematician Hypatia, whose student Orestes (Oscar Isaac) and slave Davus (Max Minghella) are both in love with her. As religious groups duke it out, men in togas and armour jostle for power, and everyone’s loyalties are tested in the end.

Weisz is one of the few film actors who could make her character’s intellectual struggles convincing, but she gets little support from the others. A cheesy score and the director’s habit of panning out for Google Earth-style shots are unfortunate.

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