The folks out at Lions Gate sent a copy of Agora for us to review for you, and so, we set out to do just that. Will this substantial, sweeping epic manage to keep interest? Or will it be too big for its own good?

Agora takes us all the way back to about the fourth century AD, out in Alexandria, which doesn’t seem to be having the troubles that the Roman Empire’s having. With the massive library and the equally massive lighthouse. But with troubles brewing in the Jewish sections, and the only recently banned Christianity, things are getting pretty tenuous out there. And it’s only getting worse when Hypatia, a woman who’s devoted her life to learning and understanding, finds herself in the middle of a war she didn’t start…but may well have been part of the cause of.

For a period piece, this sucker’s defintiely well put together. I love how the bigger conflicts are melding into the smaller ones as well, and how there’s so much going on here at once, yet for the most part, they manage to keep everything flowing along well, and very nice and coherent.

In fact, considering how the halfway point of the movie turns out, you might well mistake it for the climax. But there’s a whole other half to the film to come, and that’s what the greatest surprise is here. They might well have made two movies out of this, but instead, they’ve compressed it down into one. And indeed, there’s a lot going on here. But still, it manages to keep a coherent plot going in no uncertain terms.

We see the beginnings of science truly get started, the conflicts between Christian, Jew and Pagan, enough upheaval for three cultures all at once, and plenty else besides. If you’ve got any interest at all in historical drama, then you’ll absolutely want a look at Agora, a powerful movie with a lot to love in it. The history may not be a hundred percent, but it’s eminently believable, and that goes a long way.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Agora a nine out of ten; it’s entirely too deep and too rich, not to mention entirely too good, to not take this seriously. And you’ll have a pretty good time of it too–it may take a while to get going and a longer while to get done, but it’s still well worthwhile–you should have a pretty nice time with this one.