sincere history telling

Rating: 6/10 (31 December 2015)

It's 1994 Kigali. Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) is a hotel manager who knows the right people and gets things done. He's Hutu but is apolitical. He sees signs of upheaval. His wife Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo) is Tutsi but he expects his connections to pull his family through. Canadian Colonel Oliver (Nick Nolte) from the UN is at the hotel touting the new peace agreement. Reporter David (David O'Hara) and cameraman Jack Daglish (Joaquin Phoenix) arrive to cover the story. When the massacres start, his home and then his hotel are inundated with refugees.
This is a sincere telling of a harrowing historical story. Don Cheadle delivers a sincere performance. It's all very sincere. There is an inevitability to the story. It is a bit heavy-handed but the history demands some heavy-handedness. However, the lines coming out of Colonel Oliver is too much. There are a couple of instances of overly sincere lines when the simple images are more than enough. I'm almost glad that the white people left the hotel. The movie points the camera at one horrifying scene after another.