I love trailers, I think they’re a small movie in their own right, however they can give away too much, especially from the ending of a movie. Anyway, we’ve talked about that before, what I want to talk about are two trailers that I saw this past week that I’m very excited about. I started these in one post but the title was far too long…and you can understand why. So…
First up is Hotel Rwanda. It’s the most recent at the Apple trailer site, and it’s a very emotive story of a people being abandoned by the West, an all too common story quite frankly and one which I hope we’re learning to change.
It stars Don Cheadle, who I think is one of the most excellent actors in Hollywood, he’s one of those natural actors, for whom you can imagine every part is so easy (I imagine it’s not, but that is how his performance comes across.) Seeing him in Family Man just last night reminded me how believeable he comes across. For comparison, someone who I feel shares this ability is Gene Hackman.
Alongside him are Nick Nolte and Joaquin Pheonix, both excellent actors, and it looks like they’ve been cast well. Nolte as a UN Peacekeeper and Pheonix as a cameraman who appears to get involved in their plight. Both these actors are from the mean and moody school of acting, Nolte moreso.
If you can shut out Mr Standard Voiceover, and the heart rendering strings, the piece looks very interesting, with Cheadles character (Paul Rusesabagina) abandoned by the West with refugees who are escaping the Ethnic Cleansing around them. It seems it may take on a Schindlers List quality at this point, where Rusesabagina goes on to try to save the people using any means necessary, abandoning the Hotel he and his wife ran.
Watching the trailer you think this could go either way. They could make it overly sentimental and concentrate too much on the one mans struggle to save everyone, or they could do justice to this true story and the terrible crimes that were committed against humanity that day. Let’s hope it’s the latter, well I do anyway.
