AGORA - Spoiler Alert - possibly a synopsis really

Hey People. As promised, I'm going to talk about movies I saw. I'm sure to do a crappy job at this because I saw the movie a few weeks ago in Cannes and am just writing about it now but them's the brakes.

Agora, Directed by Alejandro Amenabar stars Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, and Oscar Isaac as the three principle characters Hypatia, Davus and Orestes respectively. The story is about an intelligent and independant thinking woman teaching in a school inside the library at Alexandria. During her time there, religion is divided into the Jews, the Christians and the Pagans. Orestes is introduced mainly by expressing his love for Hypatia. She rebuffs him. Her servant Davus, also a good student, clearly desires her but doesn't act on it. He is a pagan, or believed to be until he and one of the other servants are outed as Christian. The Christians burn a pagan man in the square and this leads to a rebellion on the library, which is run by pagans.

Honestly, all this was a little confusing to keep up with. Mostly because the names of the peripheral but important characters are strange. Also because I feel it's hard to put the characters into three groups until there are almost no pagans left. The Jews and Christians have leaders that look very similar (actors and characters/wardrobe, etc) so it's hard to tell who is who. I will say, the sacking of the library at Alexandria made me want to scream in protest. It angered me so fiercly and immensly at everything that was lost in the library over religion. I realize that this has happened many times and continously throughout the world by various religions but I hated watching it. It made my blood boil. So good on you, Alejandro. Don't know if that was the intended effect but that's how I felt.

But I digress. So, Davus leaves the side of his beloved mistress to fight with the Christians. Orestes, who is pagan, helps to rescue Hypatia and her father, who was wounded during battle. Now there is definitely a bigger battle happening here that what I can explain. The pagans dwindle tremendously. I believe that Ammonius, played by Ashraf Barhom, was essentially leading the Christians (at least for our discussion and for Davus). The Christians were engaged in a violent war with the Jews, lead by Cyril (I think) who is played by Sami Samir. Both we've seen but are relative newcomers in relation to the rest of the cast. Both were extremely well played.

While they are at war, Hypatia continues her study of whether or not the earth travels around the Sun or vice versa. Davus all but disappears from her life and in battle, struggles to find the balance in war with right and wrong. Orestes remains, protecting her, watching out for her. He becomes a roman senator in Alexandria. Hypatia's studies and her independence begin to cause trouble among the people. A former student of hers, now a part of the Christian church and a bishop, Synesius (played by Rupert Evans) comes to speak to Orestes. He and the rest of the Christians was Orestes to convert, as many other Pagans already have. Orestes doesn't want to because he is still and always in love with Hypatia despite that she'll never be with him.

In a public gathering (might have been at church, but I don't remember) Synesius forces Orestes to choose and Orestes publicly refuses to condemn Hypatia both as a pagan and a heretic. He's stoned outside and almost killed. The Christians know she is his weakness and plan to kill her. Davus objects to the plans of his own men, feeling loyalty and love for Hypatia. The Christians capture her and intend to stone her alive. Rather than see her meet this fate, Davus smothers her and they stone her anyway.

The biggest problem I had with the film was that I felt like the central part of the emotive energy was the love story. And that's great, except 1/3 of the love triangle didn't care. Rachel Weisz was phenomenal in this role. I loved her in this film. But her character is so absorbed in her science that the triangle almost exists outside of her. The sexist part of the film is when Davus grants her mercy and smothers her. And it's sad. I cried. It was really sad. But because he loved her. Problem is, he's not around her for a huge portion of the movie because he's fighting against the Jews. The bit with Orestes is sad as well because he truly loves her and opens his heart to her and she refuses. But he is still always at her side even though she'll never love him that way.

It should be said however, Max Minghella and Oscar Isaac were awesome. I really gravitated to their performances in this film. There were a lot of actors I didn't recognize here, but they were all really great and I wanted to know who they were. I highly highly recommend this film. I also apologize for my shitty ability to write a review. But hey, I'm not a professional.