Agora Director: Alejandro Amenábar Cast: Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, Oscar Isaac Rated: R Release Date: December 18, 2009
Trailer Score: 6
My Thoughts: Dramatic period pieces irritate me, because they revel in a fictionalized version and present it as somber facts. The screenwriters tinker with what really happened with ulterior motives of utter superficiality. Historically, Cleopatra was actually very homely, but her voice was hauntingly beautiful and she was brilliant. Raise your hands if you learned that from the movies. So here we have Agora, which does have some clout behind it (Amenábar, Weisz); but it presents itself identically to a million other movies out there. I’m not saying I’m disappointed that Hollywood can’t teach me more (eye roll), but I can’t stomach the sophistry. Maybe it’ll surprise me—not that I’m going to see it: if the preview is any gauge, there will be rapes o’ plenty in this movie. No thanks, I’m off to watch more fluff. At least the fluff is honest.