Some movies get by on style, and some movies have a great story to tell. The best movies combine both.
“Hotel Rwanda” may not earn many style points, but what an amazing story it has. This film is based on the experiences of Paul Rusesabagina, who was a hotel manager in Rwanda during the nightmare of 1994. It’s truly a profile in courage.
The film introduces us to Paul (played by Don Cheadle) as tensions are rising. He manages a Belgian-owned high-class hotel, an oasis of comfort in the midst of poverty. He keeps his hotel running through a tricky juggling act of schmoozing and bribing local authorities.
Paul is a Hutu, and is urged to join his people’s patriotic flag-waving; after all, the Hutu hold the power over the minority Tutsi. Paul is married to a Tutsi, however, and he remains apolitical.
With the death of the president, tensions in Rwanda erupt. (Age-old hatreds, exacerbated by decades of Belgian colonial rule, add to the brutality; the Tutsi were once the privileged people, and the Hutu the underclass.) Within hours, death squads are roaming the streets and hacking people to death.
Once Paul gets his family into the hotel, he is faced with an awesome responsibility. The hotel is overrun with refugees seeking shelter. He doesn’t have enough food or water for them. He’s running out of money to pay off the military. Bands of killers are outside the gates. And remember, Paul isn’t a soldier or a politician or a cop … he’s a hotel manager.
That is the heart of “Hotel Rwanda.” It’s about an ordinary soul rising to the occasion, even when the occasion is a disaster of biblical proportions.
Director Terry George (who tackled his native Irish troubles in “Some Mother’s Son”) takes a blunt approach in laying out this situation, but he captures some powerful scenes. When Paul and a driver venture out into the night to get supplies, the street is so bumpy they have to stop their van. They discover not potholes but human corpses scattered across the road.
George uses the film to vent anger at the world’s failure to respond to the genocide. An officer with the United Nations peacekeeping force (they have been instructed not to fire their guns), played by Nick Nolte, bitterly admits to Paul that the rest of the world is basically going to ignore Rwanda.
Even though the story concentrates on Paul, we get vivid sketches of others caught in the vortex: Sophie Okonedo as Paul’s wife, Joaquin Phoenix as an appalled journalist, and Cara Seymour as a Red Cross worker.
Don Cheadle, though a fine actor, has never quite fulfilled the electric promise of his turn in “Devil in a Blue Dress.” Now he has – his performance here can only be described as heroic. He perfectly captures an orderly, rational man who needs every inch of his fast-talking skills to save himself and his charges.
“Hotel Rwanda” makes its points crudely at times, but at least it errs on the side of passion. And sticking to its main character, it creates a stirring portrait of grace under pressure.
Don Cheadle stars in “Hotel Rwanda.”
“Hotel Rwanda” HHHH
Heroic: It makes its points somewhat bluntly, but what a story this movie has to tell: it’s based on the real-life experiences of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in Rwanda, who in the 1994 massacres protected refugees in his building. Don Cheadle gives a heroic performance.
Rated: PG-13 rating is for violence, language, subject matter.
Now showing: tk
“Hotel Rwanda” HHHH
Heroic: It makes its points somewhat bluntly, but what a story this movie has to tell: it’s based on the real-life experiences of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in Rwanda, who in the 1994 massacres protected refugees in his building. Don Cheadle gives a heroic performance.
Rated: PG-13 rating is for violence, language, subject.
Now showing: Metro, Uptown.
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