I for one try to be a man of the people, and in this case I feel that I very much am. I LOVED this film. Well, “love” is a strong word. I can’t say I loved this film really because it’s not exactly a film to be loved. It’s a film to be admired. It’s a film that reaches out to you and grabs you at a gut level.

To put it in a nutshell, it’s about the atrocities that occurred in Rwanda during the Hutu-Tutsi clashes in 1994. Over a million Tutsi were killed in the massacre and the world simply looked away. But it’s really about a particular individual who experienced it: Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager thrust into an unthinkable situation and who struggled to save all the people he could. And this is precisely where many of the critics find fault…that the movie itself looks away from the atrocities and rather focuses and the lives of few interesting individuals. But I beg to differ…sure, it doesn’t give an account in graphic detail of the slaughtering of thousands…it does gives the account through the eyes of Rusesabagina. And that precisely is what makes it so moving…because we can inject ourselves in our own small way into his situation. We can — through his eyes — see what went on. He puts us there in a much more real way than an impersonal camera lens.

I for one consider it a wise choice that the movie commits itself to telling this story in this way. I also admire Don Cheadle’s commitment to the character…a performance he deserves high honors for. It’s so in keeping with the movie itself…doing whatever one can to hold on, to struggle forth when the entire world is crashing down around you. In spite of sundry lackluster reviews, this movie WILL survive.