Indisputably a quality film, Hotel Rwanda is nevertheless a little more Hollywood than I thought it would be

Rating: Null/10 (27 March 2005)

The basic hurdle for the world to have more empathy with the macro issue of the horrendous massacre is the fact that the world is uninformed. Unlike the situation of Nazis and Jews, Irish Catholics and British Protestants or Crusade and Islam, the issue of Tutsi and Hutu in Rwanda has not generally been heard of by an average citizen of the world. In the movie, the reporter asks two women at the bar in Hotel Rwanda what tribe they belong to. "Hutu" says one, and "Tutsi", the other. The reported turns around and comments to his companion "They look like twins to me". That says a lot.
The film does educate us on the brief background of the local history, on how the Belgians used the Tutsi's to rule the Hutu and so since they left, the Hutu had been waiting for their chance to revenge. That is however just the bare backbone of the history, but we have not been brought to a deeper understanding of the bitter hatred that drove the Hutus to a diabolical genocide of a million Tutsi in 1994 as the world turned its back: "the nations are united in their indifference towards Rwanda" as Mr. Ebert aptly puts it.
Rather than being an epic on macro scale, Hotel Rwanda is a personal story (albeit a true one) on micro scale, about hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina's heroic efforts which saved twelve hundred hotel "guests" of Tutsi descent, including his own wife. This is a story told with high quality filming and yet one cannot help but come away feeling that it leans slightly towards looking like a Hollywood thriller. It would be gross injustice to say it's crafted and yet, the climax after climax of narrow escape and cliffhanging suspense does feel a tad Hollywood. It would be gross injustice to say that it's a tearjerker and yet one cannot help feeling traces of familiarity in the Hollywood style emotional pull. And there is considerable predictability, such as the sudden bumpy ride of the jeep in the fog would be easily discerned by a regular moviegoer as the signal for the next scene: a road strewn with bodies of massacred victims.
Oscar nominee Don Cheadle's performance as the circumstance-driven hero is deservedly recognized by the nomination. Nick Notle, who was wonderful in "Clean", puts in another great performance here as a similarly circumstance-driven hero in the U.N. peace keeping force Col. Oliver. The rest of the cast contributing to making this film a solid success includes Sophie Okonedo who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress as Pauls's wife Tatiana and Joaquin Phoenix as the reporter whose videotape of the massacre made the world pay attention. All told, Hotel Rwanda is a high-quality movie, but I can't agree with many comments hailing Hotel Rwanda as another Schindler's List.