Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda (Director: Terry George)

George directed a little-known feature called Some Mother's Son. As a writer, he has a few notables including In The Name of the Father and The Boxer. George co-wrote Hotel Rwanda with Keir Pearson.

Hotel Rwanda covers the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis and Hutu moderates through the eyes of Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), a manager of the Hotel Mille Collines where he kept many refugees under the protection of U.N. forces led by Colonel Oliver (Nick Nolte) and Hutu forces led by General Augustin Bizimungo (Fana Mokoena). As a Hutu himself and as one who has paid Bizimungo in various ways (like getting beer and Cuban cigars for him), Paul has curried favor from the Hutus, but his wife Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo) is Tutsi, so he feels obligated to protect the Tutsis using his influence. Obviously, this makes Paul a traiter to many people.

The film begins with a peace treaty in the works, which goes bad when Hutu president Habyarimana is killed when his plane is shot down. Since the Tutsis are instantly blamed for it, the Hutus take this as a cue to wipe out all Tutsis. What we see is Paul's difficulty in maintaining his hotel, which has quietly become a refugee camp. We see his difficulties in maintaining protection and trying to find ways for over a thousand people to get to a safe place. We see his staff having a hard time trying to keep working with the radio blaring atrocities and threats, and the measures he has to take to get them all to continue running the place like nothing is happening.

The film also covers the "Who cares?" aspect of the story, since no one wanted to do anything to help out. Journalists David (David O'Hara) and Jack (Joaquin Phoenix) show the horror, but as Jack says after the piece is aired, "I think people will watch this, and go back to eating their dinner." It's true, any offers of help are usually non-interventional. The U.N. forces are there to aid foreigners trapped in the country, not to fight off insurgents.

Don Cheadle is fabulous as Paul, and he's deserving of his Oscar nomination as he experiences nearly every emotion in the book. He sees some atrocities, but usually in the aftermath, and he has to fight many frustrations with many opposing political views. Sophie Okonedo is also good as Tatiana, who plays the strong parent that their kids need during their father's multiple split duties.

This is not a slam-dunk film though. I think it could have used a little bit more perspective than just Paul's. There are some mentions of why the Tutsis and Hutus fight, but it's brief (I had to consult some references to understand that). Also, since we're seeing just the aftermath of many, many killings, we're not being given the full impact. We don't need Passion of the Christ-style brutality, and indeed we do see some killings, but I never felt like I was there, and I was taken out of the action. Where the film could have used some development is with the reporters who were there, and a little more of the views of outside forces who are either trying to keep the peace or who don't care one way or another. With that kind of three-pronged storytelling, this might have been one of the very top films of the year.

What we have, like many films this year, is a movie with great performances but with a softened-impact way of storytelling, and that's a shame. It's hard to fault a movie too much with this kind of message, but I'm begging for a little more.