This is a weird one. While on one hand, I was never bored for a second, it does sort of struggle to balance whether it wants to be a broad, sweeping historical epic about religious clashes, or focus more strictly on Hypatia. Granted, you can't tell Hypatia's story without looking at the events around her, but the script seemed to wander in focus. Judging by her work in this film with seemingly split intentions, Weisz probably would have knocked it out of the park had the religious conflicts been kept further in the background, with the story centered firmly on Hypatia. That said, the production values are pretty fantastic (I never felt like Amenabar's film was confined to a set, even with the CGI-enhanced wide shots), the cast members are perfectly competent in their roles, and it's certainly engaging. But by the time it reaches its end, regardless of whatever may have been exaggerated/made-up/etc, it just can't seem to cross that line between "solid entertainment" and "great entertainment."
P.S.: This has to earn some sort of award for the strangest edit of the year. We go from people yelling, "JESUS was a Jew! JE-SUS was a Jew!" to...
Grade: B-
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