Rachel Weisz in Agora  It’s possible to admire the grand,
sweeping ambitions poured into the production of Agora without
having much use for the movie itself. Alejandro Amenábar delves
into a milieu — 4th century Alexandria — that’s rarely, if ever,
been depicted on film. Therein, he constructs a narrative
centered not on the standard ancient conceits of big battles and
grand speeches about liberty, but the struggle to comprehend
mankind’s place in the cosmos.  To convey the wonder of the
night sky as seen 1600 years ago, the filmmaker employs low
angled wide-shots of his characters framed against the magic
hour horizon, sweeping pans and upward tilts that slowly careen
toward the stars above. As a consequence, his picture — about
the astronomer Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) — achieves the still
transcendence, the ecstatic truth, of the suggestion that
greater, incomprehensible forces have shaped the course of our
planet.  Also, Agora comes across as a realistic evocation of
ancient communal life, rendering with aff