Handsome to look at and driven by a passionate — if not exactly precise — political sensibility, Agora is this spring’s highest-brow sandal epic, by an Egyptian cubit. Considering its competition is the lumpy Clash of the Titans and this week’s video game-inspired Prince of Persia , it’s an endorsement earned by a pretty wide margin of default. Director Alejandro Amenábar has chosen the story of Hypatia, a fourth century Greek mathematician, as the subject of his seventh film, and sets it in a marvelous recreation of ancient Alexandria. A dust-and-geometry biopic with blaring modern resonances is a risky move even for Amenábar, who has been drawn to challenges of genre (as with the understated horror picture The Others ) and topical material (his lyrical meditation on the right to die, The Sea Inside, ) over the course of his still-young career. Unfortunately the one expectation that can be attached to the director — a gift for elegant, involving stories and consistent, inventive filmmaking — is obscured by Agora ‘s tendency toward the blandly overwrought.
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REVIEW: Agora Strains to Keep Up With Its Own Staggering Vision
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