Hotel Rwanda

Year: 2004

Grade: B

Country: UK

Director: George

Review

another good oscar contender that didn’t blow me away. it’s a fine film, there are some inspired(ing) moments and cheadle does a solid job with his character, but the style and overall impact of the film were underwhelming. perhaps i’m getting harder to please, perhaps i’m just an old man, but i feel like movies were so much better in the old days. it’s not an american production (clearly canada had a production role since the main U.N. figure (played by nolte) was a canadian), and that’s probably a good thing. certainly the world dropped the ball on this situation, and most aware people know this fact. the film does an okay job of conveying the scope and magnitude of the events, but the real success of the film is in telling a specific story about a specific man’s struggle. surely there is an effort to make the story larger, in fact much energy is expended to this end, but what always remains is the story of don cheadle’s character. nolte also turns in a good performance in a supporting role.

Watched in theater