My girlfriend is a fan of director Alejandro Amenabar. We have all five of his movies including this one. So I decided to check this one out today while killing time at work. It is a long brutal epic movie about a religious war. A war between Christians and Pagans. Jews are also involved. It is the story about science as well. Rachel Weisz plays Hypatia, a strong woman who studies astronomy and teaches others about the mysteries of Earth and the Sun and all that stuff. There's a big war that breaks out. Some very graphic scenes. Pagans vs. Christians vs. Jews. The Christians outnumber all of them and take over the land. Hypatia's slave, Davus, is part of those Christians. He's in love with Hypatia but at the same time, he believes in what he believes. Basically, the Christians get together and the head preacher or pastor reads them the bible and says that no woman shall be in a leadership role. That they must not teach or do anything as powerful as men. So, they accuse Hypatia of being a witch cause she's all about science. It's a movie that gets me mad and another reason why I hate religion. But, this isn't the place for me to discuss my religious opinions. This movie was okay. It was tense at times and others times dragged on. We get to learn about these characters throughout but I was confused with Davus. I thought they were going to focus a lot more on him. He plays a very important role but he disappears for a while and comes back every other big scene just for a bit. So I felt that he needed more screen time. He was a confusing character. Rachel Weisz gives a good performance. Good shots and good sound mixing as well.
Okay movie to see, especially if you're into Roman period pieces.
