She declared, ""Hotel Rwanda" emerges as an African version of "Schindler's List"." The film however, was not without its detractors. Dave Sterrit of "The Christian Science Monitor", felt that although the subject matter was crucially important, he commented that "the movie dilutes its impact with by-the-numbers filmmaking, and Cheadle's one-note performance displays few of his acting gifts." Left equally unimpressed was Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly". Commenting on the character significance of the U.N. personnel, she said it was "a bad day for narrative, if not for diplomacy, when there is only one 3-D character among the entire U.N. lot, clad in their blue helmets, and that role is rasped by Nick Nolte with moral remorse rather than his more usual hint of dissolution." In her overall summation, she wrote ""Hotel Rwanda" is a strange history lesson that leaves us more overlectured than properly overwhelmed." Michael Atkinson of "The Village Voice", added to the negativity by saying the film was "told to us secondhand, or glimpsed in distant scuffles" and "Like the majority of movies about the last century of holocausts, "Hotel Rwanda" is as earnest and tasteful as its creators. To capture the white-hot terror of social calamity, someone a little more lawless and fierce might be called for." Writing for "The New York Times", Stephen Holden said the film was "a political thriller based on fact that hammers every button on the emotional console." He commended how the film "offers a devastating picture of media-driven mass murder left unchecked" while also praising "Mr. Cheadle's magnificent, understated portrayal". James Berardinelli writing for "ReelViews", called the film "powerful" and noted that it didn't "pull as many punches as its detractors would have us believe." Berardinelli also said the film was "brutal and shocking when it needs to be, but it also has great emotional scope and power. We find ourselves enmeshed in Paul's struggle, sharing his despair at the warfare tearing apart his country, his frustration and anger at the U.N.'s inability to act, and, eventually, his hope for a better tomorrow." Describing some pitfalls, Jeff Vice of the "Deseret News" said the "decision by the filmmakers to show things from that limited viewpoint—to show how isolated and fearful the characters were of the chaos going on around them—the film feels a little dishonest and diminished.