Premise: A dramatization of the coordinated attacks in India in 2008 by Muslim extremists.
This movie is an odd duck. It's like they wanted to make United 93 but there was one producer who kept thinking it was more of a straight action movie. Because, this is a movie about a grim topic. A lot of people die. They die in grisly fashion. The actual acts of the protagonists are human. There's not Rambo in this movie. No one turns out to be ex-special forces (well, maybe Jason Isaacs). It's regular people trying to either rescue a loved one or get out of the hotel alive. For the most part, the movie does a good job with grounding the events and the stakes.
It's telling though that my impression of the movie when I saw the trailer was that it was Dev Patel's action star turn. The trailer for this really paints it as a straight action thriller and positions Patel as someone backed into being a man of action. The idea that Patel doesn't even pick up a gun in this never would've crossed my mind. Someone clearly thought the best move was to sell this as an action movie. Some of that is in the text of the film too. There are a lot of people killed in this but most do feel pretty anonymous. There's a thing I've noticed it movies like this based on actual events. They know how many people died in total, and you get the sense that someone is watching the movie and counting to make sure they don't go over that. 174 people died in the actual attack (12 attacks over 4 days in several locations, mind you). I don't think Hotel Mumbai shows 174 people killed, but I guarantee if I asked anyone how many people they think died in those attacks after watching the movie (minus the info cards at the end), their number would be much higher than 174. In other words, I wish this movie had shown some restraint with the attacks, instead opting to make individual deaths more unsettling. Granted, it's hard to say that I wish any movie was more like United 93. United 93 at the top of my "great movies that I don't really want to see again" list.
I think the surprisingly familiar cast acquits themselves well. Dev Patel isn't quite an action star in this, but he is quietly heroic. Jason Isaac fits in well. I've never understood why Nazanin Boniadi doesn't show up in more things. Also, I wish I could figure out how famous Armie Hammer actually is. When he first popped up in this, I wanted to tell him "You know, you don't have to be in a movie like this". He's been in multiple Best Picture nominees and numerous other high-profile films. It feels like he should be too big to be in the ensemble of a somewhat forgettable thriller like this. But then I look again at his filmography and realize that other than his two big shots at a starring role (The Lone Ranger in 2013 and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 2015), he normally is just an ensemble player. Perhaps this is exactly the kind of movie I should expect to see him show up in. Oh well, he's perfectly fine in this.
One last thought. I was impressed by the lack of plot armor characters had. There was only one person I knew wouldn't die. The rest turned out to be dice rolls. I wouldn't say it was nice to see character die, but it was nice to be surprised by some of the decisions the movie made.
Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend
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