Hotel Rwanda Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)December 21st, 2004
Susan Granger's review of "Hotel Rwanda" (Lions Gate Entertainment)
Actor Don Cheadle delivers an incredibly powerful performance in socially conscious filmmaker Terry George's powerful depiction of the 1994 genocide during a Rwandan civil war.
In Kigali, Paul Rusesabagnia (Cheadle) is the manager of the four-star, Belgian-owned Hotel des Mille Collines, a luxurious oasis for wealthy Africans as well as the European elite. Oozing gracious hospitality, he lives in a suite with his wife (Sophie Okonedo) and children. On-call 24 hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, he not only caters to the whims of the posh guests but makes sure that local outstretched palms get greased and that booze is stashed in the briefcases of the corrupt authorities. Paul knows that, in Africa, one can never tell when one will need a favor.
Suddenly, violence erupts as the Hutu militia launches a massacre of the Tutsi minority. Paul is determined not only to keep the hotel open but also to shelter both Hutu and Tutsi fugitives, offering refuge from the machete-wielding militia who, filled with hatred, slaughter more than 800,000 "cockroaches" in just a few weeks. (Eventually, more than one million were killed.)
Written by Keir Pearson and director Terry George, it depicts one man's struggle against overwhelming odds to save lives until a promised United Nations rescue materializes despite the shameful indifference of the rest of the world who dismissed it as "tribal warfare." Delivering a bravura performance as this brave, real-life hero, Don Cheadle propels the personal drama, while Nick Nolte lends support as a sympathetic yet ineffective U.N. peacekeeper and Joaquin Phoenix surfaces briefly as a photojournalist with a Tutsi girlfriend. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Hotel Rwanda" is a compelling, suspenseful 8, evoking memories of "Schindler's List."
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