Not quite Schindler's List, but still a really absorbing and powerful film that serves as a real eye-opener to what goes on in the world under our noses

Rating: 9/10 (20 August 2005)

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits
In 1994, the UN, in a rare act of competence, have managed to broker a peace agreement between the warring hutus and tutsis in Rwanda, Africa. But all this is thrown into disarray when the African president is murdered and tutsi rebels are suspected. The local militia begin a nasty campaign of genocide against them and those suspected of working with them. One such person ends up being Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) a hotel owner who witnesses the horrific carnage for himself and is forced into action when his own family get caught up in the slaughter campaign.
He ends up saving thousands of lives. Hotel Rwanda serves best as a modern Schindler's List, a Schindler's List with colour, although that doesn't make the story it is telling any less bleak or harrowing. It's a few notches away from the quality of that film though.
In the lead role, Cheadle plays it stern and serious all the way, with a real conviction for his passion to the project. He has a heavy supporting cast too, from Nick Nolte, Joaquim Phoenix and Jean Reno, who only marginally manage to capture his sincerity.
I was expecting the film to be a bit longer, actually, but it manages to wrap it all up perfectly as it goes.
Hotel Rwanda is a startling film, depicting things that I know go on everyday in foreign countries but don't watch the news very often and, like many others, sort of pretend isn't happening to an extent. Although everything in this film happened when I was a child, things like this probably are still going on and it's good that there are films like this about to kick people into reality a bit. ****