The first time I noticed Don Cheadle in a film was his memorable stint as wannabe porn actor Buck Swope in Boogie Nights, and he followed up shortly after in Traffic with one of the film's best performances as narcotics agent Montel Gordon. Actually, Cheadle has played numerous roles ever since 1985, so it's a real treat to see the veteran character actor in a leading role while better known actors like Nick Nolte and Joaquin Phoenix lend support. And seeing Cheadle stretch his wings and display his impressive range ranks among the top reasons to check out Hotel Rwanda—all the better that Terry George's reality based screenplay also packs a suspenseful drama told from Paul Rusesabagina's (Cheadle) point of view.

People expecting a full blown treatment of the mass Rwandan genocide will be disappointed, but they shouldn't be surprised (given the film's PG-13 rating). Over one million Tutsis were massacred, so a graphic portrayal would require an epic length R-rated bloodbath that would leave theater goers retching in the aisles. Alternatively a larger budget and rapid fire MTV style editing could produce a Blackhawk Down clone that would give viewers a massive headache. Superficially covered by the U.S. press in 1994, the 1994 Rwanda civil war barely raised a ripple in the states, as reflected by the prophetic comment by American journalist (Phoenix) about airing a segment explicitly showing machete wielding Hutus hacking Tutsi civilians: "They will go ... ‘O God, that's horrible!,' and then go back to eating their dinner."

But George's PG-13 rendition allows us to get inside Cheadle's character and sufficiently introduces the horrors while allowing teens to legally view the noteworthy film. Adding credibility is the fact that the Paul Rusesabagina serves as an advisor to the film. Currently residing in Belgium, he is the former manager of Kingali's Des Mile Collines Hotel and played a major role in saving some 1,200 Rwandan natives, much like Oskar Schindler five decades earlier.

Filmed in nearby South Africa and set in 1994 on the brink of the wholesale slaughter of the underclass Tutsi by the dominant and renegade Hutu, we see how Paul attempts to survive the chaos—initially by forming friendships with influential Hutu leaders and later via cashing in on his relationships, offering desperate bribes, and eventually relying on courage, creativity, and faint hopes. As a highly sophisticated Hutu, Paul bridges the chasm between the tribes since he has married a Tutsi woman (Sophie Okonedo as Tatiana) and has a growing young family, making his protective role more personal and believable.

Alternating between a suspense thriller where the hero has more lives than Indiana Jones, a historical chronicle of UN ineffectiveness and Western indifference to the Tutsi's plight, and two hankie tear jerker over the blatant genocide, the film avoids pure melodrama through Cheadle's heartfelt performance. The Missouri born actor adopts the clipped African-English dialect masterfully, once again shedding his ego to become the single point of sanity in a country gone amuck. Firmly remaining the focal point as his support continually dwindles and isolates him, Cheadle's character undergoes a kaleidoscope of emotions and understandably grows through the process. The rapidly collapsing circumstances require that he extend his definition of family to save as many as possible—he can't rely on political entities nor can he solely rely on his own guile to succeed.

The subject matter makes the film worth looking into, but don't expect Hotel Rwanda to screen at the local multi-plex. Movies based on recent African events by nature are slated to screen only at local arthouses before their eventual DVD release, but perhaps it will get a wider play if Cheadle scores a deserved nod for Best Actor. Idealists may be convinced that this film will raise consciousness about man's inhumanity to man with special emphasis on African injustices, but recent history provides the sobering reality that most viewers will be appropriately horrified before returning to their dinners. George's well intentioned film does put a face on Rwanda and is destined to make its relatively small target audience more aware of the current conflicts strangling much of Africa.