| Overall Grade: |
A+ |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Hotel Rwanda Won't Let You Check Out Unchanged
by Eric (movies profile)
Jun 2, 2008
224
of
234 people found this review helpful
I have just seen a movie so haunting, so brutally honest about violence, that I WISH it weren't true. Hotel Rwanda is so powerful, so terrifying that it leaves you defenseless to the attrocities of that massacre. And for anyone who has ever enjoyed the freedoms of a Western Civilization, this film reminds you that not everyone has it as good as you do.
This film is about Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), hotel manager of the Milles Collines Hotel in the Rwandan Capitol. He's efficient, calm, and able to think on his feet when it comes to knowing which suitcase should have an extra bottle of scotch or who to give a Cuban cigar to. He tries to stay out of the local politics. He's from the Hutu Tribe, his wife (Sophie Okonedo) is from the rival Tutsi tribe.
Then came the assassination of the Rwandan president and a clash between the tribes begin. Bodies start piling up before the first night is out. And Paul decides to hide his family and a few others in rooms of his hotel. But it's not any later that U.N. Colonel Oliver (Nick Nolte) starts sending more refugees to the Hotel. Hope begins to be a comodity that Paul has to sell himself as he uses his abilities as a manager to keep a massacre from happening at the Hotel.
This film is perfect in every way possible. Casting Don Cheadle as Paul was important because of his ability to speak softly and yet demand your attention to his presence. He deserves Oscar glory for this role that is so perfectly portrayed, it makes you cry. Nolte's "Old Dog" role in this film is vital. He has a monologue that cuts to the heart of the matter. "You're not even a (certain N-Word), you're an African". And let's not forget Sophie Okonedo as Paul's wife. Her perfomance in more than the sum of her performance is a jewell that doesn't fall on deaf ears this year.
I am not a Terry George fan as to say. But I have more than admired his A Bright And Shining Lie, an HBO movie starring Bill Paxton about another figure who had to survive massacre almost alone. This film is much better in comparison, telling a tale of massacre from the inside of a small space. What you see isn't as extensive as Schendler's List, but you don't have to in order to get the point. The violence is still disturbing when you're seeing it afar. And it's still going to take me a month before I'll stop flinching when someone says "cockroach".
And now I have to resend a statement I have stood behind for a long time: PG-13 is a commercial rating that only offers moderate thrills of Rated R films without the nagging of the MPAA. I have now seen a film that stands on that rating as a pedistal, not a crutch. It's artistry isn't defined by the rating nor does it require the rating to sell this movie. Unfortunately, not many will see this film, though it should be required to be seen in schools all across the world.
Hotel Rwanda is not a film you can walk away from and not feel changed. I dare you to try to shrug it off as just another movie. Unlike Passionless, it gets your sympathy because you see these characters' pain and only wish they make it through. By the end of the movie, you cry only because you too also begin to feel safe. What you think and feel after you leave, that's for you to find out. |
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