80
Though the film, based on Dallaire's memoir, can veer toward deification of the general, it's hugely effective.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
60
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
Spottiswoode relays this tragic story with respect and sadness. But Michael Donovan's script is stuffed with clichés, and Dupuis is unable to convey the depth of Dallaire's emotions.
60
For everything admirable, like the way female Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana (the wonderful Gakire) resigns herself to a violent death, there's a heavy-handed metaphor-a cute gaggle of orphaned goats-ready to smack away the intelligence.
80
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
A quietly powerful, incisive portrait of Canadian Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallarme (Roy Dupuis), who was sent to Rwanda in 1993 on a peacekeeping mission as the ruling Hutu attacked the rebel Tutsi, yet he was hobbled by the U.N. leadership and faced with the indifference of the world's superpowers.
75
Compelling documentary.
70
Back in Canada, Dallaire tells a psychiatrist that he remembers Rwanda in flashbacks that are "not like memories at all." Shake Hands with the Devil captures something of that sensation; it's a depiction of events that are too painful to remember, too essential to forget.
50
Spottiswoode's lackluster film fails to offer any fresh perspective on these now well-known events.
30
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Filmed in Rwanda, Shake Hands With the Devil is certainly panoramic. But the best that can be said of the film is that it is an honorable dud.