Very good....

Rating: Null/10 (5 March 2005)

A searing indictment of the West's complete refusal to do Anything 11 years ago. When the Rwandan massacres began, it was like a dam burst-the Hutu president's plane is shot down, and the violence tore across that country for 100 days. I remember the news--500,000, 800,000, maybe up to a million people were butchered. We did Nothing. White people from away got out, and that was all. I have always been a Clinton fan but that was his worst moment, being too scared of committing to another Somalia to do so much as send in a single GI.
So here you have the Hotel, a four-star swanky oasis during the genocide's, w/ Don Cheadle bribing every general or bigwig Hutu in sight to stay alive, stay in business, and keep the huddled Tutsis inside alive for yet another day, a week, month, 'til freedom finally comes at the end. Cheadle is incredible in this. He deserved an Oscar.
It's played very much as a Schindler's List goes Africa, from the point of view of the Hotel. You wind up only seeing the violence here, here, and there, whenever the sea of war hits the Hotel itself before moving on again.
The most jarring scenes--the van load of Tutsi's surrounded by militia in the street, w/ a desperate Cheadle bribing them to their freedom, the 'bumpy road' which turns out to be acres of bodies lying hacked to death as far's the eye can see, and of course the separation from his wife. I found myself wincing especially in the 'bumpy road' section. The mind reels at such ugliness, and cannot grasp the sheer magnitude of what really happened there.
Kudus to Nick Nolte and the actress who played the wife, both were top notch as well.
Do check this one out, it will break your heart and anger you at the same time.
***1/2 outta ****