Solid and quite frightening at times recounting of a desperate situation in 1994 Rwanda.

Rating: 7/10 (13 April 2009)

One of the more common reactions to have in regards to a tragic, real life event played out on screen is one of great sadness – it's just a reactionary thing that something so horrible is even capable of happening to people who just don't deserve it. Hotel Rwanda is a film that is able to produce these sorts of reactions, but also feelings on a level of suspense and horror as certain scenes and situations play out involving people we have come to be quite fond of. The film is more of a re-telling of certain events than it is a study of anything in particular, although the protagonist of the hour does possess characteristics of great honour and courage at a time of need. In truth, Hotel Rwanda does feel a little bit stagey at times while at others, feels made for television. You do, also, feel as if you're being chastised as a Westerner – that something as horrific as this happened and you let it happen; but the film mostly offers positive vibes.
The hotel in Rwanda of which the title refers to is one owned by a certain Paul Rusesabagina (Cheadle), a harmless but rich and quite successful Rwandan living with his harmless and equally rich family. He has a wife named Tatiana (Okonedo) and a few children. He runs a hotel and takes care of his employees as well as his family in good measure. Importing goods and taking care of those that need taking care of are the run of the norm and these things are the most he has to concern himself with. But that is about to change. The film breaks away from this supposedly 'idyillac' set up for a turf-war of sorts between rival tribes, named the Hutu and Tutsi, that goes back many years; although by the mid point, you feel the tribesmen are unconcerned with whatever legacy they're fighting for and just enjoy chopping up some other people, such is the manner in which the history and details of the rivalry is developed.
No matter, we're not here for a history lesson from yonder-century; we're here for a history lesson from yonder-decade, 1994 in fact. One thing leads to another and Rusesabagina's hotel quickly becomes Schindler's factory when push, not so much turns to shove, as it does cold-blooded execution by way of machete. Most of the locals not interested in the bloodshed want in, and it's Paul's duty to save as many as possible as the 'guest' list totes up. But can he save all these people and take care of his family? What about supplies? What happens if/when the U.N. pull out? All this occurs as the rest of the world look on, and Canadian U.N. higher-up Colonel Oliver (Nolte) pauses for thought now and again as well as pulling his gun from his holster and waving it around at times of supposed urgency.
Paul himself is a Tutsi and the early warning signs occur when he, in the passenger seat of a harmless van transporting him to his home, has a run in with a Hutu before the bulk of the bloodshed has begun. The warning and the hatred is planted in a fairly well done manner and it's all fine because later on, things will get really hairy. Like I said, the film is a re-telling of events more than it is a true study of anything. Paul is established to be this above-ordinary Rwandan living a life that 95% of Rwandans don't have the luxury of living; he has a wife and child and there's a lot of grief before the nice, clean hero is put through a grinder and we're all supposed to go 'Oh No! I hope no harm comes to him!' It's fine, but it's unspectacular and it doesn't really matter if the backdrop is the 1994 Rwandan Genocide; the Holocaust or some made up event a hundred years in the future when aliens come to Earth and enslave us.
What the film does do, in some retrospect, is demonstrate what people are willing to do in times of great distress. If Paul is willing to allow people into his hotel for safety and stay behind with the others deemed doomed when certain people have to pull out, then that is that but on the flip side there's a lot of greed in the film; a sense that 'sure, we'll help you out' but always for a price – a sort of 'what's in it for us?' mentality that the film sort of captures. But Hotel Rwanda is a very respectful and, on the broader sense of things, important film that will remind many people in the West of the situation that happened; a Western world that, as the film so very clearly points out, contributed hardly anything to, bar pull their own people out thus saving their own skins. If the film's overall goal was to recount the event that happened at that time then it succeeds and that is worthy enough of certain praise.