Baltimore Sun by Michael Sragow

Enraging and enthralling.

San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

An extraordinary and effective film.

Chicago Sun-Times by 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.

USA Today by Claudia Puig

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

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by 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.

Time by 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.

The New Yorker by David Denby

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

The Hollywood Reporter by Michael Rechtshaffen

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

Washington Post by Ann Hornaday

Magnificent.

Salon by Charles Taylor

A startlingly effective and upsetting political melodrama.

Newsweek by David Ansen

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

L.A. Weekly by Ernest Hardy

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

Rolling Stone by 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.

Los Angeles Times by 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.

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

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

Variety by 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.

Film Threat by 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.