Agora (2009)

Hypatia is a prominent scholar who has devoted her life in making a breakthrough in the field of astronomy. An atheist amongst religious fanatics. In a 4th century Alexandria in turmoil. While the movie concentrates on telling the story of Hypatia, the direction is taken more often than not a few steps away in order to create a believable socio-political setting. I can not really say that the film makes it clear that the choice of the era and the setting is just the means of telling - and frown upon, for that matter - universal truths. Can't say that the factions are irrelevant. Or that the sparks of the controversies are just there to highlight the real issue that is, the importance and the viability of free will, or more to the point, the lack thereof. The story expands to displaying several aspects of that social system and the lives of our protagonists. It manages even to successfully blend all these aspects together in a well realized world and an ever-going story, keeping things interesting enough for the spectator till the very end of it. There is a problem however. Things never get all that interesting for the spectator in order to feel involved. The performances are solid and quite a few things happen in these two hours. However, the storytelling is very straightforward most of the time and the story itself is, again, not something extraordinary to hook my interest. Definitely not bad and interesting enough. If you are not looking for two hours of thrills, the movie is recommended.