The Last King of Scotland Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)September 28th, 2006
THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
"I am you," General Idi Amin, the latest corrupt dictator to rule Uganda, proclaims to a cheering crowd in 1970, trying to reassure them that he is a real man of the people. (We are told that the villagers cheered just as loudly and enthusiastically for the previous would-be benevolent dictator.)
In a striking performance that is the heart of the film, Forest Whitaker assumes the appearance and the persona of the despotic but charismatic Amin, who ended up ordering 300,000 of his fellow citizens to be slaughtered and left to rot in open fields. In a remarkably restrained piece of acting, Whitaker gives us a likable totalitarian madman whose bluster appears more amusing than terrifying. Perhaps Whitaker nailed Amin cold, but somehow Whitaker never quite convinces us of the depth of Amin's depravity. Whitaker, although not nearly as good as he was in his performance last year as an Internal Affairs detective in "The Shield," he is probably a lock to receive an Oscar nomination.
Although THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND has a superlative supporting cast, it is essentially a two-person drama with James McAvoy, Whitaker's costar, getting more of the screen time. As a young and naive doctor named Nicholas Garrigan, McAvoy plays an easily corrupted guy who makes a deal with the devil without realizing it before it is too late. Dr. McAvoy becomes Amin's personal physician, "closest advisor" and best bud. Not exactly loved by the natives, the doctor comes to be known as Amin's "white monkey." How many of the events dramatized in the film are true isn't clear, since this is one of those movies that only claims that it was "inspired by real people and events."
Directed by Kevin Macdonald (TOUCHING THE VOID), the film is gorgeous. The rising or setting sun lights many of the scenes, and the pacing is rapid but never so fast that one loses track of the story. The title comes both from Amin's obsession with everything Scottish and the fact that Dr. McAvoy was from Scotland, something he keeps reminding the "English" from the British embassy who want the doctor to spy on Amin and more. In a cute plot device, the bored, new doctor only goes to Uganda after spinning the globe in his parents' home. Cheating, he first rejects Canada and then accepts Uganda on a second whirl. Once there, he tells a married woman, played by Gillian Anderson in a minor role, that he came to Uganda "to make a difference" and, just as important, "to have a bit of an adventure." He'd also like to have an adventure with her in bed -- who wouldn't? -- but she rejects his advances for reasons that have less to do with marital fidelity than her inability to move beyond her comfort zone.
As Dr. McAvoy lives the life of luxury as Amin's pampered guest, he is oblivious to the men with automatic weapons everywhere and to the disappearance of so many of Amin's opposition or potential opposition. Only when Amin gets more blatant, doing such things as expelling every person of Asian ancestry from his country, does the doctor finally begin to grasp the horror about him and to realize that he has become little more than a well-fed prisoner.
THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND runs 2:01. It is rated R for "some strong violence and gruesome images, sexual content and language" and would be acceptable for most teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, October 20, 2006. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
