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All right, who left their loin cloth on the classroom floor?
The bodies in the library Ancient library under siege— and you thought Marin’s return policy was strict... by Re nat a Po l t
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words and sandals, astronomy, and Christians behaving badly: If this admittedly snarky description doesn’t quite sum up Agora, it comes close. A Spanish film directed in English by Chilean-born Alejandro Amenabar (The Others,
ViDEO
The Sea Inside), the film is set at the end of the fourth century AD in Alexandria, Egypt (but filmed in Malta). Governed by Rome, Alexandria is the site of the magnificent Royal Library. There, Hypatia (based on a historical character and played by Rachel Weisz) studies mathematics, philosophy and astronomy and teaches classes of eager young men, all of them, apparently, in love with her.
Shock and awe GREEN ZONEcould easily have become what its detractors claim it is, a Hollywood preachie trying to smuggle its left-wing politics into an action picture. But set your stopwatch: 10 seconds into the film’s opening frames you’ll know you’re in for a world-class gut-clutch. Set in the chaotic opening hours of America’s shock-and-awe invasion of Baghdad, Zone puts us on point with the first Army unit charged to find the WMDs that were the war’s justification. But squad leader Roy Miller (Matt Damon) and his men keep coming up dry—their intel doesn’t Night of the Damon. square with the pigeon poo-covered empty warehouses they keep finding. When Miller says as much at a tense military briefing for the brass, he gets the predictable slapdown, but nets a part-time job from CIA station chief Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) who shares Miller’s doubts about “Magellan,” the shadowy source who provided the Pentagon’s intelligence that brought us to war. Directed by Paul Greengrass, this big-budget military thriller has everything that’s missing from mainstream fare: realism and maturity, hurtling action, meaty internecine battles between rival branches of government. The lukewarm critical response to the film just mystifies me.—Richard Gould 26 PACIFIC SUN JULY23 - JULY 29, 2010
But there’s trouble in River—er, Mediterranean—City as the Christians aggressively proselytize while the Jews and pagans—or some of them—resist. These conflicts aren’t merely intellectual or theological: Battle after battle is fought in this two-plus-hour film, with massive digitally produced crowd scenes and plenty of blood. The film’s centerpiece is the Christians’ sacking of the library, as the pagans attempt to rescue some of its precious books (that is, scrolls). Two of Hypatia’s students, the upperclass Orestes, and her slave Davus, convert— Davus becoming a follower of the black-clad preacher Ammonius. But Weisz’s Hypatia floats ethereally above the fray, refusing either to convert or to get emotionally involved with her admirers, speculating about the shape of the earth and its position related to the sun, and occasionally uttering such lines as, “Why are slaves never around when you need them?” Agora makes some timely points about fundamentalist religions, as the radical Christian sect the Parabolani preaches women’s submission and “modesty.” You’d think the filmmakers had taken the fundamentalists’ advice, as, aside from Hypatia, women are virtually MIA from this film. Hypatia doesn’t even appear to have any female servants, which strikes me as odd. What the film does have, in splendid abundance, are impressive sets: the library and other public buildings, lavish interiors, a ship at sea. Agora leaves us with the impressions that the ancients lived amid constant religious strife, butchery and upheaval, interrupted by short periods of speculation about the solar system. Maybe that’s the way it was, but you have to wonder. —Renata Polt ●
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bout a half hour into The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, after a particularly dramatic magical showdown, sorcerer-in-training Dave looks incredulously at his new master, Balthazar, played by Nicolas Cage. “Are you insane?” Dave asks. “Little bit,” Balthazar responds. That exchange can, in so many words, sum up “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” the latest offering from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the guy who brought us “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “National Treasure.” “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” follows the Bruckheimer tradition of big stars and big special effects, often at the expense of truly compelling characters or a believable plot. However, what sets this film apart from other action-adventure blockbusters of the summer is that it is aware of its own absurdity and wastes no time attempting to convince the audience that what it’s watching has any significance whatsoever. The plot is pure inanity. While on a
Doesn’t anyone apprentice as chimneysweeps anymore?
school field trip, lovesick fourth-grader Dave meets Balthazar, a 1,000-year-old sorcerer literally locked in an epic battle against evil sorcerers Horvath (Alfred Molina) and Morgana (Alice Krige). The encounter leaves Dave the laughingstock of his classmates but Balthazar convinced that he’s the young boy he’s been looking for lo these many years who will succeed the greatest wizard of them all, Merlin. Fast forward 10 years. Balthazar manages to convince the nerdy (and still lovesick) college student Dave to learn the craft of sorcery and help him defeat Horvath and Morgana once and for all. Together, Baruchel and Cage have surprisingly good chemistry as the skeptical student and the tutor patient yet assured in his coaching methods. While Baruchel’s Dave is basically a live-action version of his chatty, dorky Hiccup in “How to Train Your Dragon,” Cage as Balthazar is understated and kind of cool. Mention must be made of the film’s clever nod to the Sorcerer’s Apprentice sequence in the 1940 Disney classic “Fantasia,” in which Dave makes like Mickey and tries to use his powers on a few mops and buckets. It’s this silliness that makes “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” enjoyable in a mindless kind of way. The film falls short in its supporting characters and smaller plot details, which ultimately leave the viewer detached from the film’s suspense. Alfred Molina does his best as the villainous Horvath, but we are told next to nothing about him or the extent of his wickedness. And don’t even try to understand how the sorcerers’ magic, an odd combination of spells and physics, works. But then, in a movie so confident in its own insanity, who really cares about making sense?—Robin Migdol Review our reviews at letters@pacificsun.com.
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