Review of Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire (2005) by Daniel P — 21 Feb 2012

The subject matter is compelling, no doubt about it. As a documentary, though, this is a failure. What, exactly, is this documenting? Dallaire's return to Rwanda? Not so interesting, as it turns out, and could be covered in 10 minutes.

The best part (the conflict with the Belgians) is glossed over and not pursued. What we get are repetitive scenes of Dallaire going to visit sites and people for which we have little context because the real story - the genocide - is referred to but barely explained.

We see Dallaire talk to this guy, greet that guy, swear (a lot) and blame himself in part for what occurred - and a number of talking heads telling us he shouldn't blame himself (over and over and over).

What would be far more interesting would be to see him confront the Belgian ambassador, talk to regular Rwandans (from both sides) and get their perspective, and tell more of the story of what exactly did happen in some sort of comprehensive fashion.

This doc is a mess. It comes across as a student film, shot by people who had no clear vision of what their project should be. Critic Roger Moore puts it nicely: "A flat-lined, pedestrian affair, a talking-heads/ touring-heads piece that seems to point the camera in the wrong direction.

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