Hotel Rwanda: Critic Reviews

Hotel Rwanda is a strange history lesson that leaves us more overlectured than properly overwhelmed.

Hotel Rwanda is a political thriller based on fact that hammers every button on the emotional console.

One of the year's most moving and powerful films, anchored by a magnificent performance by Don Cheadle.

The great strength of Hotel Rwanda is that it's not about superhuman heroism but simply about human decency.

[The movie] sweeps over you with blunt, unequivocal conviction.

The twofold agenda in Hotel Rwanda is to commemorate what Paul Rusesabagina did and to shame each and every Westerner who sees the movie. On both of those counts it is successful.

It's a gut-twisting story handled, largely and predictably, with asbestos mitts.

Cheadle affects a flawless Rwandan accent and gives a performance that should shame every UN member who voted to ignore the Rwandan Tutsis' pleas.

Because of the subject matter, this feels like one of those films you see because it's good for you. But it also is an extraordinarily moving drama.

A must-see for teens (and adults, for that matter) who know the Rwanda massacre as but a distant headline.

The world stayed out of Rwanda for fear of doing an imperfect job. Bold filmmakers are at their best when they mature beyond that kind of paralysis.

I can hardly think of another movie in which sheer intelligence and decency have been made to seem so attractive or effective.

The film works not because the screen is filled with meaningless special effects, formless action and vast digital armies, but because Cheadle, Nolte and the filmmakers are interested in how two men choose to function in an impossible situation.

It's a great story. But it's Cheadle who makes the movie really special, delivering a memorable and utterly convincing portrayal of a truly good man.

A gut-punch of a drama.

It's simultaneously haunting and inspiring.

The film serves as reminder and educator for those who've forgotten or never knew about the situation in Rwanda.

A horrifying yet compelling story of man's inhumanity to man.

The most truly inspiring movie of the year.

[A] flat, cramped staging which, combined with d.p. Robert Fraisse's harsh overlighting, gives the film the feel of a cheap backlot production, even though it was shot on location.

Don Cheadle takes his rightful place among America's greatest actors in Hotel Rwanda.

Move past the big picture, of race hatred, arbitrary maps and guilt over what the UN and the West can't or won't do, and find the human story within the inhumanity of war.

The almost forgotten but all too real African genocide documented in Hotel Rwanda hits us as suddenly and as hard as it does Paul Rusesabagina, the accidental hero played so masterfully by Don Cheadle.

There is much to respect in Hotel Rwanda, not least Cheadle's subtly crafted performance, which allows the audience a direct connection to his ethical growth.

Not only did it give me a better-rounded perspective on the Rwandan tragedy, but it introduced me to a modern hero who stood against tyranny and oppression at the risk of losing all that was dear to him.