Hotel Mumbai (2019)

Despite the top-notch cast, this film had very few meaningful performances.
The film details a truly wretched day in Mumbai, when terrorists attack the city and the city is dreadfully unprepared, with no tactical squad in the city whatsoever.
Though Armie Hammer gets top billing, he's never been more annoying or foolish than here, insisting on a beef hamburger for dinner, and he's married to an Indian Muslim. He's truly a dumbass and his character is almost an insult. Yes, he absolutely just wants to protect his family but he makes careless decisions throughout and ends up dead, as he is held hostage.
Dev Patel, the far more noble of the characters, settles for second billing as Arjun, a waiter at the hotel, struggling in substitute shoes, far too small for his feet. Despite having a wife and young daughter at home, he stays at the hotel and selflessly helps to save the guests who are, just like the staff, sitting ducks.
While the film is long, it also focuses far too much on the inner workings of the terrorists and how they are all being controlled by a voice in their ears, which leaves too many characters without the chance for any of them to truly develop a real personality though Patel's Arjun comes the closest. His is a good acting performance along with Nazanin Boniadi as Zahra, Armie Hammer's wife, and Tilda Cobham-Hervey as their nanny Sally.
It is unfortunate that this film isn't better, as it has all the pieces of what makes a great movie, a real story, with tragedy to spare but the suspense isn't there. The film should have gotten rid of some of the excess characters and focused on a select few which would have elevated the film greatly. Grade: B
Side Notes:
-Nitpick: you can't do this to me. In the one scene, filmed from two different angles, Armie Hammer is not wearing his wedding ring but then as the camera angle switches, he is. That is an unacceptable mistake and inconsistency, which disgusts me.
-Jason Isaacs's character is bizarre, a Russian businessman who develops a fatherly-crush on Zahra. He also dies.
-I knew when Arjun forgot his shoe, it was going to be bad.