One man can do miracles sometimes...

Rating: 9/10 (20 February 2007)

It doesn't matter from where you look at it; "Hotel Rwanda" is a story about Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle); a hard working, committed, kind and devoted to his family man with a very big heart. It is also the true story of a massacre that took place in Rwanda because of a civil war with civilians incapable of defending themselves, which led to this number of dead people: one million.
A war with no real fundament, you could say; because it was something about the Hutus and the Tutsis and a lot of anger publicly spread by a radio station. Also a war where not many people could intervene, because Rwanda wasn't worth a dollar for the rest of the world at the time. During all of this mess, this man, manager of an important hotel, took in one thousand people from all over the world and he even accepted both Hutus and Tutsis. Being a Hutu, he was married to a Tutsi (Sophie Okonedo).
Inside his hotel, a UN division in charge of Colonel Oliver (Nick Nolte) could only afford four guards at the hotel's gates while outside the "interahamwes" were all over the streets looking for Tutsis to kill. A cameraman (Joaquin Phoenix) could get a shot of the army assassinating Tutsis with machetesCan you imagine all this?
There's not much more to the movie than the recreation of this events, but what recreation and what an accurate vision from everyone involved in it. Terry George, writer of the wonderful "Hart's War", deals with war again in his script; but together with Keir Person, they succeed in showing us how hard reality is, in words. They introduce us a world dominated by bribery, distrust and the ever-present racism.
George also directed the picture this time, luckily with the compassion needed to shoot a theme like this one. The camera (a beautiful cinematography by Robert Fraisse) goes to the streets, to the houses and the shelters but it doesn't need the direct blood and violence I'll probably witness in "Apocalypto" when I watch it.
Performances are also quite effective. Nick Nolte (watch him in "The Good Thief") is superb as the Colonel who knows his limitations and can't break the rules. He has a couple of great moments discussing with Cheadle's character. Jean Reno has a nice little part and Sophie Okonedo also achieves some moments of true moving brilliance when talking to Cheadle.
Cheadle is, however, in the end, the star of the show. In the best portrayal of his career, the actor assumes the responsibility of being on screen all the time. He does it embodying this man I talked you about completely, with all the characteristics I mentioned above and an accent so flawless that you think of him as another Rwandese actorIt's fantastic.