Title: Hotel Mumbai
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Anthony Meras
Starring: Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi
Runtime: 2 hrs 3 mins

What It Is: The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is one of the most luxurious in all of India let alone the world. When members of the terrorist cell Lashkar-e-Taiba begin 12 calculated attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai their crescendo is the aforementioned hotel. When the hotel is in lockdown the patrons trapped in the restaurant will be led by the Head Chef Oberoi (Anupam Kher) and waiter Arjun (Patel). Among the group is American David (Hammer) and his native Indian wife Zahra (Boniadi). Based on true, harrowing events will our characters escape the senseless violence occurring around them.

What We Think: So this film is a bit of a toss-up. While the story is based in reality it all seems a bit too much at times. This does work with building up your utter disgust with the antagonists, but some may find it manipulative. It’s extremely violent. That’s a trigger warning to the more sensitive viewers. What you have here outside of that is some stellar acting and very VERY tight direction from in his feature debut. Seriously good stuff here from Patel and Boniadi, even Armie Hammer is good here. This after seeing him in one of the year’s worst. Looking at you Wounds.

Our Grade: B+, Tense and violent this is a film that’ll lead some in an utter mess. If you do get the opportunity to check it out or you find the premise interesting check it out! Just be sure to heed my warnings on this one. Likewise…maybe bring some tissue. Dev Patel continues to prove he is one of this generations most underrated character actors. Literally, anytime he’s on-screen he engages the audience and is so easy to relate to his characters have all the sympathy that pays dividends here.