"The Last King of Scotland" (2006) - Movie Review

“The Last King of Scotland”, directed by Kevin Macdonald, is an adaptation of the novel by Giles Foden which weaves the fiction and facts of the seventies dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin. Forest Whitaker bears the role of the Idi Amin while James McAvoy plays Dr. Nicholas Garrigan who befriends him and pays the price in the end. Forest Whitaker has already won a 2006 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role while waits for the results for the 2006 Academy Award for the same category.

The movie is about how Dr. Nicholas Garrigan gets himself into the riddled friendship of Idi Amin. The movie uses the dictatorship of Idi Amin as the backdrop and thickens the plot of Nicholas finding out the truth and the mistakes he made. Nicholas, graduating from the medical school is in an aid station in Uganda to further his skills. Nicholas helps Amin in a small accident and impresses him by killing a cow suffering from pain. Amin immediately calls him off and offers the position to be his personal physician, a round about way of gaining his friendship rather than his services. After initial hesitiation, Nicholas is equally amazed by the man and accepts the position. He tells the aid station of his choice and pursues his work with Idi Amin and serving in his city hospital. How this fictional character, Dr. Nicholas, finds out the mistake he made and lot he commits on his way towards being a friend to Amin is the remaining movie is about.

The movie starts off very interesting and right on track. The introduction of Amin and how Nicholas is totally engulfed by the animated and mesmerizing speech by him is nice. The art of the showing the bond forming in between these two strange characters is one of the fine points of the movie. Nicholas falling for one of Amin’s wives, the madness of Idi Amin and the very same likeable environment deteriorating has been witnessed in lot of other movies. The movie does redeem itself at the end for sure but it could have been more profound in various instances.

Forest Whitaker cracks the character of Idi Amin and gives his performance of his career. But does it earn a Best Actor for Oscar? Well, it will be answered on February 25th 2007. The way Whitaker carries the sane madman personality is a treat to watch. He can be the stand up comedian when he wants to while rip off the flesh when he wants to. The unpredictability of his character has been rightly grabbed by him and very well played. James McAvoy as Nicholas brings out the opportune young man who wants to extend the boundaries of his life. His depiction of young Nicholas who buries his innocence and conscience when it comes to comfortably avoiding the truth and also being honest and fearless in front of Amin shows his talent for acting.

The cinematography is rich in colour since it brings out the luscious forests of Africa and also the streets of Kampala, Uganda vibrantly. Editing is straight forward and the viewers do not lose their tempo as per the plot goes. The screenplay compliments the straight line editing in a normal way.

The movie definitely brings out the mad man and eccentricity of Idi Amin. The dreadful massacres and the insane decisions are not shown but felt by the viewers. The film while guiding the viewers into the story, tries to tell the humanity being negated during his regime. The screenplay slowly falters in the middle of the movie but definitely gains back at the last few moments. The movie sometimes fails to justify the actions of Nicholas like when it comes to his immediate contact of the British Council without any proper investigation of the suspicious Minister he hinted Amin to have a talk, missing. There were lot of possibilities of the emotional sufferings went through by Nicholas which were not accounted properly. The viewers will never get bored or slacked around during this movie. The handling of violence is very fragile and could have been pretty sore while taking a movie like this, but the director properly places it only in a couple of occasions with so much vitality which gets into the bones of the viewers. The viewers while closely expect anytime mad violence of capturing the Amin’s bloody massacre of estimated 300,000 lives but instead they are given the sharp and indigestible two gruesome styles of execution he adapts for betraying his loyalty marks how dehumanizing Amin was.

“The Last King Of Scotland”, definitely brings out the best out of Whitaker of playing an ultra negative role, who till now known only for soft and understanding characters. The viewers should expect a thriller rather than a biopic. It does not dwell much into inside dark emotions of his Idi Amin’s associates or himself but gives a thriller of how a normal physician gets a wrong acquaintance and finally gets out of it with blood in his hands. The director calculatedly placed the strongest dialogue of the movie in the last moments of the movie. Nicholas perplexedly asks Dr. Djonjo who helps him escape Nicholas Garrigan: Why are you doing this? Djonjo: Frankly, I don't know, you deserve to die. But I am tired of hatred. Watch “The Last King Of Scotland”, for Forest Whitaker and a decent thriller.