Reviews

This film relates the stories of five women who survived the Rwandan genocide. The filmmakers wisely keep themselves out of the picture and instead let the women tell their stories in their own words. Their experiences were so horrific that it's hard to watch without crying. Yet there's nothing self-pitying in their words-- what happened, happened, and now they must go on as best as they can. All of these women are courageous, but I was most affected by the words of a young girl who became the head of her family at the age of 12 after her parents were killed. In the years since the genocide, she has devoted herself to caring for her younger siblings. At the film's end, she reflects, "I don't think my parents would be happy to see me (spending her young life raising her brothers and sisters). But I think they would be proud."

"God Sleeps in Rwanda" is far and away the strongest nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject for 2005.

This is the kind of movie that a crazy person would make. The soft-focus filming and bizarre sound-stage sets create a disorienting, dream-like atmosphere. And the ludicrous plot adds to the feeling of unreality. This movie defies summary -- a deranged brewery heiress sponsors a contest to find the saddest music in the world; a father and son estranged by romantic rivalry and amputation meet again; musicians from around the globe face off, with the winners sliding into a huge vat of beer. It sounds like a horrible, disjointed mess, but it all fits together in the surreal world of the film. If you're desperate for a larger message you could read this as a statement about American lack of conscience and undeserved good fortune, I suppose. But I think "The Saddest Music in the World" is best experienced if you just surrender to its lunacy and let it wash over you.

This "adaptation" of one of F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest short stories is a conglomeration of every bad melodramatic plot twist known to the movies. You have to keep watching just to see what they'll throw in next. Van Johnson is perhaps even more wooden than usual and Donna Reed has little to do in a thankless role. Walter Pigeon does as well as could be expected, considering his one-note bluff and hearty character. But Elizabeth Taylor manages to seem genuine and natural most of the time, despite being saddled with a perplexing character whose ever-changing motivations seem to come out of nowhere. Especially during her serious scenes with Johnson in the first half of the movie, she manages to hint at a believable inner complexity.