"That's a nice-a donut."
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Hotel Rwanda
Hotel Rwanda has been described as an African-version of Schindler's List, and it certainly has some similarities. For starters, both films are based on true stories. Don Cheadle, in an Oscar-nominated role, plays the manager of a four-star hotel in Rwanda at the onset of fighting between two ethnic groups: the Tutsis and the Hutus. He ends up using the hotel as a refuge for what would turn out to be over one thousand people. Along the way he gets some occasional help from a UN soldier and an international Red Cross worker, and must bribe the genocidal Hutus from killing everyone in the hotel.
Many of the events in the film are genuinely harrowing. At one point, Cheadle's hotel manager and his wife make a pact that if the soldiers come into the hotel, the wife and kids will go to the roof and jump off - potentially saving themselves from what would surely be even worse pain. Cheadle and Sophie Okenedo, as the wife, are fantastic. In fact, I look forward to seeing Okenedo again; hopefully this performance will allow her to begin to get some prime parts in Hollywood.
Nevertheless, the movie does have some flaws. Just about everyone beyond the few main characters are ignored in terms of character development. And I would love to have seen more background on the conflict, particularly on the shameful way that the rest of the world tragically allowed the massacres to go on. Hotel Rwanda is a fine place, but I'm not sure I ever want to go back.
The Verdict: B+.
Michael Bentley 9:31 AM
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