Agora (2009)

The critic finds the film a rousing, intellectually provocative drama that avoids easy genre categories and bristles with ideas and topical provocations. He highlights the central story of Hypatia pursuing cosmic mysteries amid personal and historical conflicts in ancient Alexandria.

The film offers a bold, thought-provoking return for director Amenábar and a timely assault on religious intolerance. It is always intelligent and a welcome comeback from the director of The Others.

The critic finds it an ambitious and cerebral historical drama that stands out from typical sword-and-sandal epics by focusing on ideas and real drama rather than spectacle. Rachel Weisz's performance as Hypatia is singled out as outstanding.

The critic finds the film hampered by a heavy-handed opening and conventional epic tropes but values its timely parable on religious intolerance and fundamentalism, highlighting Rachel Weisz's strong performance as the intellectually passionate Hypatia.

The critic praises it as a thoughtful, adult film that reflects on religious extremism through its historical setting and natural dialogue, commending the avoidance of heavy spectacle. Weisz's performance is highlighted as strong, though the film lacks some intimacy with its central character.

The review describes a visually imposing epic that ambitiously dramatizes a pivotal historical shift through Hypatia's story, with spectacular production values and clear parallels to modern religious fundamentalism. It notes the film's intellectual seriousness and impressive physical production but criticizes a certain heaviness of style and lack of emotional pulse.

The critic views the film as an ambitious but flawed historical epic that shows the early church violently oppressing science, women and other faiths. It praises the top-notch production design and spectacle but criticises weak narrative cohesion, unconvincing accents and dense scientific focus that limits audience engagement.

The critic finds Amenábar’s ancient-historical drama of ideas a sweeping but uneven recreation of 4th-century Alexandria, with strong visuals of volatility and impending violence. It singles out the acute portrayal of how religious fervour interrupts secular knowledge as its most welcome element, though supporting characters remain thin.

Amenábar only half succeeds with this lavish historical epic, as big budgets and subtlety seldom go together. Rachel Weisz gives an excellent performance as the polymath Hypatia whose work is destroyed by fundamentalism.

The review deems the film a shrill, shallow attack on Christianity that reduces characters to symbols, praising its cinematography and Weisz's charismatic lead performance while criticizing the lack of historical or dramatic coherence.

The review calls the film a highbrow mess despite its ambition and gumption, criticising its lack of common sense, clunky elements and failure to do its ideas justice. Some praise goes to individual images and performances amid the flaws.

The critic calls the film an innocuous and pointless epic that fails to convincingly argue for reason over zealotry, singling out its weak dramatic conviction, listless melodrama, and mawkish messaging.

The critic praises the film's recreation of ancient Alexandria and its emphasis on the importance of questioning and humanism, while noting that the lead character can seem too ethereal and the script does not fully explore personal conflicts.