It’s not difficult to understand the appeal of “Hotel Rwanda.” Ten years after the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis by the Hutu majority, silence continues in the West.

The full scope of what happened, coupled with our own complicity in allowing it to occur, has never been fully addressed by Westerners. With our attention turned toward the war on terror and another genocide now occurring in Darfur, it is unlikely that an honest reckoning will ever take place. This movie may be our only chance as a culture to come face-to-face with past indifference to the suffering we helped cause. Unfortunately, rather than confront our past, director Terry George has chosen to whitewash away our guilt.

The dark stain that is the Rwandan genocide was as much a story of Western indifference as it was tribal conflict. When the Belgian government pulled out of their African colony, they left it in charge of the majority Hutu population. It became a death sentence for the minority Tutsi who, up until that point, the Belgians had allied with and used to control Rwanda. With cries of “cut down the tall trees,” a reference to the physically taller stature of the Tutsi, members of the Hutu tribe began to exact a bloody revenge.

It would be difficult, if not impossible, for any movie to try to create a coherent narrative with the massacre that followed as a basis. It simply is not something that could be understood by the rational human mind. Instead, George has attempted to focus on the heroism of one particular Rwandan, giving us glimpses into the horror that surrounded him.

Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle, “Ocean’s Twelve”) is a hotel manager who begins as a rather unlikely hero. Before the bloodshed begins, Rusesabagina is quiet and successful, a businessman who is known for pleasing people and knowing how to get things done. When the violence erupts, he doesn’t undergo the dramatic change often seen in movies. He is misguided, thinking that the West will surely step in once the information reaches them.

Jack (Joaquin Phoenix, “The Village”), a television journalist, knows the reality of Western society: “They’ll say, ‘Oh my God, that’s terrible,’ and they’ll go on eating their dinners.”

When United Nations peacekeeper Colonel Oliver (Nick Nolte, “Hulk”) is forced to remain uninvolved, Rusesabagina begins to slowly take on the responsibility of saving those who come to him. It is a touching progression, reminiscent at times of Oskar Schindler’s slow transformation in “Schindler’s List.”

Cheadle’s acting in “Hotel Rwanda” is magnificent. He deftly emphasizes the strain of walking the line between savior and prisoner. Virtually trapped in his hotel, Rusesabagina uses a combination of popularity, charm and bribery to ensure that the compound remains a safe haven. Cheadle, like Rusesabagina, understands the precariousness of it all. Should the bribery stop or the alcohol and cigars disappear, the sanctuary would quickly become a death camp.

Cheadle’s depiction of Rusesabagina is remarkably similar to his real-life counterpart. He makes no attempt to answer the questions that Rusesabagina seems to always leave in his wake. He leaves questions of “why” unanswered throughout the film. Instead, he shows a man who is proud, who acts on instinct and necessity. Viewers don’t realize how little Cheadle has shown them of Rusesabagina’s inner struggles until one scene shows him attempting to tie his tie, only to crumple to the ground. Suddenly, it becomes painfully clear that Rusesabagina takes action because someone has to in a world where nobody else does.

Even with a wonderful performance from Cheadle, “Hotel Rwanda” still isn’t able to bring audiences close enough to the atrocities to actually confront them. Rusesabagina’s frustration with the lack of assistance from Western forces is never brought into the forefront of the film, furthering the ignorance many Westerners have regarding the events in Rwanda.

In a strange twist, George ultimately allows us to walk away feeling good about the genocide. The movie is actually uplifting. It affirms the human spirit and reminds us that unlikely heroes always rise to the occasion.

The most unfortunate side effect of “Hotel Rwanda” is the way that it allows viewers to pretend that they didn’t have to act and that the Rwandans were fine without any interference. The focus of the movie is the people Rusesabagina saved, not those who were marched to their death and cut down by a political and cultural war that was largely the creation of Western interests. While “Hotel Rwanda” is a great movie, it could have done so much more to examine a controversial decision instead of continuing to conceal it.