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Back Shelf Beauties
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Hotel Rwanda Sometimes, movies can show us an event that happened during our lifetimes, but teach us about it because our attention was focused on something else at the time. Let Hotel Rwanda do this for you. Set in 1994 and based on a true story, Hotel Rwanda stars Don Cheadle as Paul Rusesabagina - the house manager running the upscale Mille Collines hotel and resort in Rwanda's capital city, which attracts many well-to-do vacationing Europeans. He is a hard working, smart, rising star in the hotel chain who understands how to walk fine lines and grease the wheels of commerce with well placed bribes and traded favors. Paul also is a member of Rwanda's ruling class, Hutu, who happens to be married to a lower class Tutsi woman, Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo), manages many Tutsi workers at the hotel and lives in a Tutsi neighborhood. As tensions grow between the Tutsi and Hutu, Paul earns favor with corrupt government officials, questionable suppliers and conflicted U.N. military leadership, convinced all of this goodwill must be stored up for an unavoidable future. When the Hutu president of Rwanda is assassinated, presumably by Tutsi rebels, the Hutu led military begins a deadly ethnic cleansing attempting to eliminate all Tutsi. In the middle of all of this, Paul is needed to protect foreign nationals at the Mille Collines as well as the many Tutsi friends, co-workers, neighbors, orphans and more who turn to him for help and safety. How long can Paul keep everyone, including himself, safe? Will any of the world powers or United Nations step in to stop the slaughter? While many of us vaguely remember the Rwandan ethnic cleansing, Hotel Rwanda and Cheadle make the events come to life for us and highlight a sad moment in world history by focusing on one man's amazing, heroic struggle. Director/co-writer Terry George (along with co-writer Keir Pearson) tells a dramatic tale full of emotional twists and turns that keeps you glued to your seat and horrified at what is happening on the screen. The audience feels a true sense of concern and emotion as we worry about the individuals in the story, especially Paul. Cheadle is able to make Paul a bigger hero than we already would consider him to be because he is one of the best actors in the business today. He fills the character with an understated honor and strength that makes Paul's every decision and action powerful. As we watch him rally the staff, deal with militia leaders and speak with U.N. forces, Cheadle gives Paul a believable inner strength in a performance that doesn't overdo it. He saves the biggest emotions and showiest performances for scenes that call for it, but makes every scene important in its own little way. Because of his performance and ability, we are always learning about Paul, his family, the problems between Hutu and Tutsi, and more. Hotel Rwanda might be hard to find in every city as it slowly opens across the country, but try to seek it out if you are in the mood for an amazing drama. (editor's note: After a limited run, this movie will open in 800 theaters across the US and Canada on February 4, 2005) 4 Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2004 - WaffleMovies.com
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