Parallels Schindler's List

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2005)

Don Cheadle gives a great performance as Paul Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda, a film that documents the slaughter of a million Rwandans at the hands of their own countrymen. This is almost an African version of Schindler's List, as we witness an unwilling businessman suddenly thrust into the position of savior to a high number of outcasts with nowhere to go. Watching Cheadle's performance is like watching a drowning man try to keep his head above water, and I mean that in a good way--there are situations that look absolutely hopeless for Rusesabagina, but he finds ways to keep people alive at the last second. Nick Nolte gives a good performance as the exasperated Colonel Oliver, a man that is handcuffed with what he can do, but ends up being noble to the end. The scariest role is that of the anonymous radio voice coming over the Rwandan airwaves, encouraging the Hutu natives to wipe out the Tutsi minority. Cheadle is a very good actor, and this is his best role to date.