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Hotel Rwanda
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / United Artists


8.5

based on 40 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 152 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Reservation Road

MPAA RATING: PG-13 on appeal for violence, disturbing images and brief strong language

Starring Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Nick Nolte, Joaquin Phoenix, Desmond Dube, David O'Hara, Cara Seymour, and Fana Mokoena

Based on true events from the civil war in Rwanda, this film profiles Paul Rusesabagina (Cheadle), the manager of a luxury hotel who opened his establishment to Tutsi refugees despite the danger to himself and his family.

GENRE(S):	Drama \| War
WRITTEN BY:	Keir Pearson Terry George
DIRECTED BY:	Terry George
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 12, 2005 Theatrical: December 22, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	110 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Canada / UK / Italy / South Africa

Nominated, Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Original Song - Motion Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama (Cheadle), 2005 Golden Globe Awards; People's Choice Award, 2004 Toronto International Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

USA Today Claudia Puig

Emerges as an African version of "Schindler's List."

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Deep movie emotions for me usually come not when the characters are sad, but when they are good. You will see what I mean.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

An extraordinary and effective film.

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Enraging and enthralling.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Several times, Hotel Rwanda teeters on the edge of making a unique, visionary statement about our times, but can't quite do it. Too bad. If it could have pulled itself together in one brilliant scene, this may have been a great movie, instead of just a very good one.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Magnificent.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

A startlingly effective and upsetting political melodrama.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Cheadle impressively carries the entire picture, delivering the kind of note-perfect performance that's absolutely deserving of Oscar consideration.

The New Yorker David Denby

The film turns into a triumph for Don Cheadle, who never steps outside the character for emotional grandstanding or easy moralism.

Time Richard Schickel

It is a powerful portrait of a slightly befuddled man who, when inhuman demands were placed on him, found within himself an unexpected response.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

By turns harrowing and stirring, it’s a shame-inducing history lesson that never feels like a lecture.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This role could represent a career performance for Cheadle, whose forceful and multi-dimensional portrayal keeps Hotel Rwanda at a consistently high level.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

An articulate plea to Westerners not to repeat these terrible sins of omission.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Not a striking film visually. It's deliberately plain looking, focused on the appalling events with an almost documentary immediacy.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

One of the year's best.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

A gut-punch of a drama.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Cheadle's performance elevates Hotel Rwanda, making it a film that does justice to the tragedy it commemorates.

Empire Dan Jolin

It's a weighty message movie, but it's a message worth delivering – and the cast's delivery is flawless.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It sweeps over you with blunt, unequivocal conviction.

Slate David Edelstein

Cheadle is extraordinary.

Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer

Cheadle, always a fine actor, is outstanding here--an almost willfully naive yet uncommonly decent man who sees civilization crashing and burning around him yet who, almost against his own better judgment, refuses to give in to it.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Hotel Rwanda isn't impersonal, even though it only hints at the story's full horror. It's stunning.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Cheadle's quiet, superbly modulated performance as an ordinary man driven to heroism by hellish events reminds us that the slogan "no justice, no peace" has a private as well as a public dimension.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

Hotel Rwanda, based on real lives and events, aims unequivocally to break your heart.

Newsweek David Ansen

Ultimately, one's reservations are overwhelmed by the story's urgency; it's impossible not to be shattered.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Scrappy, powerful, and shocking.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

George has been criticized for simplifying a complex story into an African "Schindler's List." But despite flaws in execution, this is a film of rare courage and imperishable heart.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

In condensing Rusesabagina's story, George has undoubtedly overstated the specific dramatic moments; the movie has more cliff-hangers than the "Indiana Jones" series.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

All we can do is hope that films such as Hotel Rwanda remind us all -- moviegoer and politician -- of the terrible cost of doing nothing.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Throughout the film, Cheadle's eyes are constantly scanning his environment for opportunities or anything that may be amiss.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

I wish Hotel Rwanda felt like something more than a very, very good TV movie.

TV Guide Ken Fox

It's a great part for a great actor and Cheadle does a magnificent job turning this living legend back into flawed, flesh-and-blood reality.

Variety Scott Foundas

The genocide of some one million Rwandan Tutsis by their Hutu neighbors remains a disgraceful and too-little-known episode in recent world history. Alas, Terry George's ineffectual Hotel Rwanda only partly rectifies that problem, taking what ought to have been a complex, powerful inquiry and simplifying it to a story about the resilience of the human spirit.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

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

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The story it tells is such a wrenching one it cannot help but move us, especially when the performance of a lifetime by Don Cheadle is added to the mix.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A political thriller based on fact that hammers every button on the emotional console.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The Rwandan genocide was one of the most shameful marks on Bill Clinton's presidency, but for all the film's powerful images, George stops short of the forceful political statement that Rusesabagina's story demands.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A strange history lesson that leaves us more overlectured than properly overwhelmed.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The subject is crucially important, but the movie dilutes its impact with by-the-numbers filmmaking, and Cheadle's one-note performance displays few of his acting gifts.

Film Threat Phil Hall

The film presents the Rwandans in the worst possible way: venal, corrupt, vicious, stupid, barbaric and completely incapable of governing themselves. Honestly, I've seen more intelligent and sympathetic depictions of Africans in Tarzan movies.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 152 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ian R gave it a10:
Whether what others say, this is certainly one of the best dramas out there. My intention to watch this film was really for suspense, but I got more than what I expected. And this film goes to my list as the most moving film I have ever seen.Can't help but cry.

nate gave it a10:
Great film. Don was spectacular in his role. many emotions.

Taylor B gave it a10:
This movie was insane. I am 14!!! and this movie touched me greatly. It made me think this only happened 14 or 25 years ago. If you put you self in side one of those people who watched there children,mom,dad,brother or sister get chopped up with a knife or beaten to death. What do you think? This movie deserves 10/10!!!

Patrick S gave it a10:
ONe of the most inspiraional movies I have seen in a long time. It shows that no matter what and in the time of reckoning that one person can come out and change it for a country. Don Cheadle was brilliant and showed courage and teanacity to overcome the Hutu militia.

roy r gave it a10:
Film threat- africa is experiencing the various messes it has because of the exact traits that some african leaders have that you say this film negatively depicts. for god sake man, how could an atrocity like this happen where sensibility and intelligence reigned? look no further than robert mugabe to see that the faults pointed out in some african leaderships, in this film are very accurately depicted.

Matt G. gave it a10:
A truly outstanding and moving film. I challenge anyone with a decent IQ and a bit of humanity in them not to be moved by it. The performances of the two leads are outstanding and the film conveys the full horror of the atrocities that occured. A film I am not ashamed to say moved me to tears but also left me feeling uncomfortable with my own apathy to the horrors that took place in the mid 90's. This film ranks as one of my favourite of all time not quite as good as the similar themed Schindlers List but equally as heart breaking.

Evan O. gave it a9:
This was a very good movie. I'm only 14 and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The acting by Cheadle was terrific, and most of the plot was done spectacularly. I wasn't too bloody, but was very, very sad. It really is hard to believe that something like this could have happened only 15 years ago.

Hotel Rwanda Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / United Artists

Hotel Rwanda
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / United Artists