✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
TV

Hotel Mumbai review ★★★★★

27 Sep 19 – 27 Sep 20, ON SKY CINEMA

In Hotel Mumbai, Dev Patel and Armie Hammer face off against terrorists in the Taj Palace Hotel. Based on the events of the 2008 Lashkar-e-Taiba attacks in India

By Euan Franklin on 21/9/2019

2 CW readers are interested
Dev Patel in Hotel Mumbai, Sky Cinema
Dev Patel in Hotel Mumbai, Sky Cinema
Hotel Mumbai review 3 Hotel Mumbai review Euan Franklin
Directed by Anthony Maras
Starring Dev Patel (David Copperfield, Lion, Slumdog Millionaire), Armie Hammer (Call Me By Your Name), Jason Isaacs (The Death of Stalin)
Runtime: 2h03mins

It’s a difficult line to tread: using a real-life tragedy to facilitate an action-packed, fictionalised version of events. Yet it can be done, respectfully and responsibly. But where the esteemed examples walk that line without clumsily veering into exploitative territory, Hotel Mumbai wobbles, trips and falls while clearly having inappropriate fun.


The debut feature film from Anthony Maras takes the 2008 Lashkar-e-Taiba attacks in Mumbai, India, as the catalytic tragedy – crafting a well-made, but ill-advised, thriller from the bullets, blood, and bodies left inside the five-star Taj Palace Hotel.


Maras and co-writer John Collee spread their narrative scope across many characters. They start with the terrorists arriving by sea; then join a rich couple (Armie Hammer and Nazanin Boniadi) entering the hotel through the front doors; then follow the courageous waiter (Dev Patel) arriving late for work.


When the shooting kicks off, even more perspectives open as Indian citizens and Western tourists flee towards the Taj. The staff help the runners as much as the guests, and the police on the ground do what they can. Maras and Collee examine nearly everybody involved (including the terrorists), providing an exciting, accessible map of the attacks.



Hotel Mumbai shows Armie Hammer at his very, very worst

Maras obviously wants the violence to be uncomfortable. It was horrific in reality; ergo, that needs to show on film. As if to emphasise this further, he crosses the fiction with real TV broadcasts from the time. Yet despite the crushing truths of merciless shots to the head, and blood spilling across pristine white lobby floors, there’s still the transparent desire to re-design this very real attack into a Hollywood action movie.


The lovely Dev Patel plays the humble and heroic waiter, taking it upon himself to save everyone. He’s a safe and engaging presence: unable to get to work on time with the proper uniform, yet managing to herd a group of guests out the line of fire.


But his heroism is almost ruined in the presence of Armie Hammer, playing the culturally confused American guest David. This is Hammer at his very, very worst – giving a dumb and sparkly-eyed performance as the film’s white hero, which is apparently mandatory. And then there’s the hard-nosed Russian misogynist, bizarrely played by Jason Isaacs. He’s a cartoonish, mercenary type who offers a kind of non-PC comic relief while being (it transpires) one of the good guys.


A brutally choreographed and meticulously researched thriller hides inside Hotel Mumbai, but the thrills of the fiction burn under violent realities. To have fun in such an exploitative space is a challenge to swallow. Maras would have done better to avoid true tragedies and focus on something ridiculous, something that harnesses his obvious action-movie talents.





What Hotel Mumbai review
When 27 Sep 19 – 27 Sep 20, ON SKY CINEMA
Price £determined by cinemas
Website Click here for more information



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 24–26 March. Photo: The Parakeet, Kentish Town
Things to do in London this weekend: 24–26 March
Irene Maiorino and Alba Rohrwacher in My Brilliant Friend season 4, HBO/Sky Atlantic (Photo: HBO)
My Brilliant Friend, season 4, Sky Atlantic: first-look photo, release date, plot, cast
Best art exhibitions in London. Photo: Thin Air at the Beams
Top exhibitions on now in London

Editor's Picks

The Farewell: Awkwafina stars in family tear-jerker
The Farewell review
Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver in Marriage Story
Marriage Story review
Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland in Judy
Judy film review
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
2

Hotel Mumbai

Dev Patel

Armie Hammer

Sky Cinema

Cinema

Autumn

2019

Action

You might like

  • Dev Patel in The Personal History of David Copperfield

    The Personal History of David Copperfield review ★★★★★

  • Lion film 2017

    Lion film review ★★★★★

  • Call Me By Your Name film

    Call Me By Your Name film review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×