Brilliant. Reminds you how great movies can be

Rating: 10/10 (26 November 2004)

Hotel Rwanda engages the viewer in a catastrophe of epic proportions while emphasizing the resilience of human dignity and the tenacity of love. Don Cheadle excels as Paul Rusesabagina, highest-ranking African official at a Belgian-owned luxury hotel in Rwanda, who is left to run the place himself when European staff are recalled amid growing social violence. Paul's first concerns are to protect his family and to maintain a high level of service in the hotel. As the killing frenzy grows around him, so do his compassion and pragmatism, and he gradually opens his heart and the hotel's doors, converting luxurious quarters into a refugee camp. Nothing is overdone, and there is no preaching. But as the chaos spreads, turning neighbor against neighbor, the movie develops moral and artistic power. Private scenes are beautiful and convincing. Crowd scenes are authentic and riveting. Early on, as approaching guns explode and children huddle in fear, a small boy flinches in the crowd. You flinch with him. That's it. You're there. It's all real now. What a movie.