Critical response
Among mainstream critics in the U.S., the film received largely positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 91% based on 188 critical reviews, with the critical consensus calling it "a sobering and heartfelt tale about the massacre that took place in Rwanda while most of the world looked away." On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 40 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Michael Rechtshaffen, writing in The Hollywood Reporter, stated actor "Cheadle impressively carries the entire picture, delivering the kind of note-perfect performance that's absolutely deserving of Oscar consideration." Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times called it a "riveting drama", while exclaiming "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. Because we sympathize with these men, we are moved by the film." In the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle wrote that the film was a "harrowing experience", and that "it documents for a mass audience what it was like. It's useful, in that it shows how it can happen. It's even hopeful, in that it shows that it's possible—not guaranteed, but possible—for people to maintain their humanity in the face of unhinged barbarism." Claudia Puig of USA Today stated the film was "one of the year's most moving and powerful films, anchored by a magnificent performance by Don Cheadle." She declared, "Hotel Rwanda emerges as an African version of Schindler's List." The film was not without detractors, Dave Sterrit of The Christian Science Monitor felt that, although the subject matter was crucially important, "the movie dilutes its impact with by-the-numbers filmmaking, and Cheadle's one-note performance displays few of his acting gifts." Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly commented on the character significance of the U.N. personnel, she stated it was "a bad day for narrative, if not for diplomacy, when there is only one 3-D character among the entire U.N. lot, clad in their blue helmets, and that role is rasped by Nick Nolte with moral remorse rather than his more usual hint of dissolution." In her overall summation, she wrote "Hotel Rwanda is a strange history lesson that leaves us more overlectured than properly overwhelmed." Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice, added to the negativity by stating the film was "told to us secondhand, or glimpsed in distant scuffles" and "Like the majority of movies about the last century of holocausts, Hotel Rwanda is as earnest and tasteful as its creators. To capture the white-hot terror of social calamity, someone a little more lawless and fierce might be called for."
Writing for The New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote the film was "a political thriller based on fact that hammers every button on the emotional console." He commended how the film "offers a devastating picture of media-driven mass murder left unchecked" while also praising "Mr. Cheadle's magnificent, understated portrayal". James Berardinelli, writing for ReelViews, called the film "powerful" and noted that it didn't "pull as many punches as its detractors would have us believe." Berardinelli also wrote the film was "brutal and shocking when it needs to be, but it also has great emotional scope and power. We find ourselves enmeshed in Paul's struggle, sharing his despair at the warfare tearing apart his country, his frustration and anger at the U.N.'s inability to act, and, eventually, his hope for a better tomorrow." Describing some pitfalls, Jeff Vice of the Deseret News stated the "decision by the filmmakers to show things from that limited viewpoint—to show how isolated and fearful the characters were of the chaos going on around them—the film feels a little dishonest and diminished. It's never quite as effective as The Killing Fields or Schindler's List in that the film's overall impact is not as great and it doesn't linger in the memory." Vice was quick to admit "Hotel Rwanda does have its share of powerful moments; in particular, a scene in which Paul and another hotel employee unknowingly—due to fog—drive into a mass grave." He also expressed satisfaction with the acting, stating "Cheadle brings a needed intensity to the film; his character's fear and compassion are quite vivid. Nolte is also good in his limited screen time, as is Joaquin Phoenix, who plays a news cameraman."
Eleanor R. Gillespie of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution stated that Hotel Rwanda was an "unforgettable film" as well as "a doubly unforgettable performance by Don Cheadle." Although mentioning "The parallels with Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List are obvious", she praised individual cinematic elements that made the film unique, such as "the revelation of a dark, bumpy road paved with thousands of corpses. Or in a little girl's heartwrenching plea, 'Please don't let them kill me. I promise I won't be Tutsi anymore'." She concluded her review with Cheadle's noteworthy performance, stating he gave "one of the best performances (if not the best) of last year—an Oscar-worthy portrait of a man who kept his head clear and his humanity intact in the midst of a man-made hell." Similarly, David Ansen wrote in Newsweek that "two performances carry the film. Cheadle, in his richest role since Devil in a Blue Dress, burrows deep inside this complex man, who discovers in himself a strength he never knew he possessed, as he faces the disillusionment of all the "civilized" notions he believes in. As his strong, committed wife, Tatiana, Sophie Okonedo, barely resembling the saucy hooker she played in Dirty Pretty Things, is a revelation." However, in the Arizona Daily Star, Phil Villarreal was not moved by the lead acting of Cheadle or Nolte. He thought the characters were "cardboardish" and stated the "uplifting moments of rescue seem antiseptic and set up." Critic Leonard Maltin wrote that Hotel Rwanda was a "powerful film" that he thought avoided being "overly didactic by focusing on one compelling character, believably brought to life by Cheadle." In Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy, drawing on the work of journalist Keith Harmon Snow and writer Edward S. Herman, author Matthew Alford called the film "sensitive, humane and powerful" but noted that it was "striking how the history of bloodshed has been spun in line with Western interests".
