This could be a great movie dealing with a great subject. However, the producers tried to convey to many (political) messages to the audience while wanting to put forward a Titanic-style love story between the two main characters. The main focus switched continuously between the love-guilt relationship between the Gentille and Bernard, and the events in Rwanda during that time. With many flashbacks in between, all possible twists were defused well before the audience imagination started to kick in given the circumstances.
On the other hand, the western authorities in this movies are depicted as binaries and stereotyped to the point of being completely caricatural, which removed a great deal of credibility to the plot. The movie condemns the inertia of the western powers in general, and Canada in particular, in face of the genocide. Canada is a poor choice for personifying the main actor that could change the course of history in the Rwandan tragedy. It was simply a matter of the geography, no colonial ties with Rwanda and no clear role in that country at that time. It almost likened to accuse, let say, Peru for its inertia toward the Holocaust during WW2. Belgium on the other hand would be a more credible choice.
I got out of the movie with the feeling of seeing a modern day adaptation of a Shakespeare's drama between two lovers with footages of the Rwandan massacre from CNN inserted in the background. The WW2 Holocaust or the Camdodian genocide could served as decorum to the story with the same effects.
This movie could pick up where 'Hotel Rwanda' left off, but it decided to be just a complement of the later.
On the other hand, the western authorities in this movies are depicted as binaries and stereotyped to the point of being completely caricatural, which removed a great deal of credibility to the plot. The movie condemns the inertia of the western powers in general, and Canada in particular, in face of the genocide. Canada is a poor choice for personifying the main actor that could change the course of history in the Rwandan tragedy. It was simply a matter of the geography, no colonial ties with Rwanda and no clear role in that country at that time. It almost likened to accuse, let say, Peru for its inertia toward the Holocaust during WW2. Belgium on the other hand would be a more credible choice.
I got out of the movie with the feeling of seeing a modern day adaptation of a Shakespeare's drama between two lovers with footages of the Rwandan massacre from CNN inserted in the background. The WW2 Holocaust or the Camdodian genocide could served as decorum to the story with the same effects.
This movie could pick up where 'Hotel Rwanda' left off, but it decided to be just a complement of the later.