3 reviews

---

Anon. January 22, 2007

Great script.
Great direction.
Great cast.
Great production.

Ok it's not 100% historically accurate but it's only supposed to be a fascinating character drama. Won't spoil the plot, just allow yourself to be mesmerised along with our hero.

---

Glenn Watson January 10, 2007

Dir: Kevin Macdonald
Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy

Forest Whitaker’s storming performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin has Oscar written all over it. And rightly so. Based on Giles Foden’s novel, this is a study of Amin’s powerful, playful and poisonous character seen through the eyes of a naïve Scottish medic.

Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) leaves Scotland to do good deeds among the Ugandan poor. Nicholas is drawn to the wife (Gillian Anderson, too briefly seen) of his senior colleague. Led by his immature sense of fun, he’s too selfish to see the predicament from anyone else’s point of view. It’s a pointer to what’s to come.

Impulsive and cocky, he’s also drawn to the enigmatic personality of Idi Amin, the dangerous leader of a recent coup. After a chance encounter, Amin asks him to be his personal physician. So starts a journey into the heart of darkness. And a personal awakening to the world of consequences and responsibility.

A palpable sense of menace permeates the film even though Amin’s atrocities are never seen. But Whitaker casts a complex spell of fear, paranoia and instability that creates its own horror. McAvoy (a far cry from his Narnian Mr Tumnus) is credible as the selfish student.

Teetering at times on the unlikely – McAvoy’s dalliance with one of Amin’s wives feels contrived – the pacing flags. A sickeningly tense denouement at Entebbe airport reveals Amin’s true colours, red in tooth and claw. The 70s film A Man Called Horse featured a similar, squirmy scene.

Luridly conveying Amin’s court and conscience, Scotland is strong on atmosphere. Political and personal dilemmas are satisfyingly nailed. Watching two unpleasant people for two hours is occasionally tough going, though. Credit, then, to young McAvoy. And especially to Whitaker for a riveting performance as Amin – sweet as a pineapple, dangerous as a pin-pulled grenade.

More of a study of human nature than a historical piece, the Last King of Scotland has an excellent cast and a tight script, with rounded and flawed characters making a compelling story of corruption and weakness.

The film follows newly graduated Scottish doctor Garrigan (McAvoy) as he travels on a whim to Uganda. Selfish and impulsive, by chance he becomes Amin’s personal physician.

Forest Whittaker’s performance as Amin is mesmerising. We see the dictator at his most charming and convivial, but there is an undertone of violence and paranoia. He is a huge character in every way, both very real and very monstrous. It is very easy to understand Garrigan being flattered and subtly drawn into Amin’s inner circle.

Essentially the story is told through Garrigan’s eyes, making this an outsider’s view of events. The atrocities which happened to Uganda’s people during Amin’s reign take place for the most part off camera; they are hinted at and glimpsed. With this perspective the film makes some delicate points about post-colonialism and the continued involvement of the West in African affairs.

The dynamic between the two men is utterly compelling. However the storyline involving Garrigan’s affair with one of Amin’s wives does feel tacked on to the drama, an unnecessary appendix when the real relationship is between Garrigan and Amin.

This is a minor quibble, the final scenes are incredibly tense and shocking and the film is so powerfully played throughout that you can forgive any faults.

Han 23 Jan 2007