EW review: 'Rwanda' hits home on DVD
Passionate, emotional film has big impact on small screen
By Ty Burr
Entertainment Weekly
(Entertainment Weekly) -- An important movie made with passion and skill but no particular artistry, "Hotel Rwanda" plays with far greater impact on the small screen, where the human story feels appropriately large and it's harder to escape the film's accusing glare.
As Paul Rusesabagina, the diplomatic hotel manager who saved more than 1,200 of his fellow Rwandans from death during the 1994 genocide, Don Cheadle gives a committed, controlled performance that turns shocking in the one scene when Paul finally snaps.
What felt vaguely like a TV movie in theaters -- the filmmakers consciously downplayed on-screen violence to get a PG-13 rating -- hits home at last.
Extras: Director Terry George prods the soft-spoken Rusesabagina to recall the horrific reality on a commentary track, and there's also selected scene commentary from Cheadle, a making-of doc and a bone-chilling postscript in which the hotel manager returns to Rwanda for the first time since the genocide.
EW Grade: C+
'The Woodsman'
Reviewed by Jeff Labrecque
"The Woodsman," the anguished drama from the producer of "Monster's Ball," is just the thing for viewers who found "Mystic River" too happy-go-lucky. Walter (Kevin Bacon), released after 12 years in prison for molesting young girls, battles his inner demons while trying to make a new life for himself with Vicki (Bacon's wife, Kyra Sedgwick), his equally traumatized lover.
First-time director Nicole Kassell bravely and patiently tackles a taboo subject, challenging the limits of an audience's empathy. Some may flinch at walking in the shoes of a pedophile, but Bacon's masterfully restrained performance -- the strongest of his career -- is worth the trek.
Extras: In a too-short ''Getting It Made'' featurette, producer Lee Daniels admits to fearing the impact of the role on Bacon's career. Kassell points out the downside of Megan's Law in her commentary, and some of her observations, like the sweeping comment, ''Every child at some point ... has had a moment of discomfort where you just can't tell if an adult's intentions are totally pure,'' are as jarring as anything in the movie.
EW Grade: B-
'Bad Education'
Reviewed by Edward Karam
Pedro Almodovar's multilayered potboiler "Bad Education" bubbles with anti-Catholicism, cross-dressing and sex. (The R version blurs brief naughty bits with pixellation; the film also comes uncensored.)
Enrique (Fele Martinez), a filmmaker seeking a project, receives a surprise visit from Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal), his first, adolescent love. Now an actor who calls himself Angel, Ignacio wants work, but he also asks Enrique to read a story he has written based partly on their school experiences, which include sexual abuse by a priest.
Almodovar deftly interweaves reality with the screenplay that Enrique envisions -- until a third version of events provides a deadly twist.
Extras: Almodovar introduces the film to the AFI in a featurette, and in his running commentary, he discusses his decision to use alternate screen widths to distinguish film and reality (though it barely registers on a standard TV) and says people have likened Bernal in drag to ''a Mexican Julia Roberts.''
EW Grade: A-
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