The true story of the Taj Hotel terrorist attack in Mumbai. Hotel staff risk their lives to keep everyone safe as people make unthinkable sacrifices to protect themselves and their families.
“Hotel Mumbai” is based on the tragic events of a series of terrorist attacks in Mumbai by radicals Muslims who felt neglected. The terrorists pillage through Mumbai and make their way to their final destination which is the Taj Hotel. The movie tells the story of the employees and guests who have to fight for their survival while special forces are hours away. I knew nothing about this movie when it was sent to me and didn’t even bother checking out a trailer. I am very pleased to say this is one of the year’s best surprises so far.
“Hotel Mumbai”’s ensemble cast is headed by Dev Patel who is a family man trying provide for his family and does everything to make sure the guests get the best experience possible. He brings a very human and empathetic performance to the movie but also, in the same breath, is unrealistic in some of his actions which can be applied to a lot of the cast and for the story (we will talk about that later). The employees live by this motto of “guests are God” and that leads to some over-sacrificing, sometimes to an extent that it becomes naiveté. But we need it for the film to keep moving forward. Armie Hammer and Nazanin Boniadi play a newly married couple with a newborn that we follow during the attacks. The two have great chemistry and add a lot to the movie in various ways. Jason Isaacs also adds a performance that at first could have been one-dimensional but by the end is well rounded and nuanced. While I am not blown away by the ensemble, they definitely did their job.
“Hotel Mumbai” marks the directorial debut of Anthony Maras who co-wrote the film with John Collee. I think Maras does a great job on the director’s chair as this movie is suspenseful all the way through. The film teeters on the line of not presenting too much gore. I am one who is against the excess of gore in films because it doesn’t seem realistic but the gore in this is very necessary to show how inhumane these terrorist attacks were. The pacing is phenomenal and not once did I get bored watching the film. The cinematography is nothing crazy and I did want more from the score especially in some suspenseful moments. But technical elements like makeup with the blood and production design felt real to the location and sound design with all the weapons going off is amazing. I really did enjoy the presence of some of the real news footage of the actual attack being sprinkled throughout the news reports in the film. My biggest problem lies in the script where per usual, we need characters to make idiotic decisions to keep the narrative going. While it’s not for the majority, it does take away from the screenplay.
With that being said, the story for the majority of the movie, is great. All in all, “Hotel Mumbai” is a suspenseful thrill ride and director Anthony Maras delivers in never letting you get off the edge of your seat. A pretty good ensemble performance that helped in showing the travesty these attacks were. It is a hard movie to watch for its subject matter but please, if you can catch this in theaters, do so.
“Hotel Mumbai” opens in Dallas Friday, March 29th
