I hadn't heard of the 4th century Alexandrian philosopher Hypatia before this film, Amenabar's latest, started getting promoted, but I can see why her name has come down the ages to us - as presented in this film, at least, and portrayed by Rachel Weisz, she's a memorable proto-Enlightenment figure, deeply committed to the ideals of human reason and philosophical understanding to the extent that her death is ultimately brought on at least in part by her beliefs.
Agora is well made, if unusually structured: a slowish beginning followed by an extended, pell-mell action sequence culminating in the burning of the library of Alexandria - and then a kind of pause and then part two, several years later, of equal length to the first part and focusing on the huge changes then sweeping Alexandrian society. It dramatises the city-state in a time of social, political and religious flux, setting Hypatia's intellectual explorations against that backdrop, and foregrounding the effect that the increasingly ascendant (and intolerant) Christian religion has on the development of that thought.
(w/ Kai and Ben K; also Steph for dinner but not movie)
