Film Review: The Last King Of Scotland (2006) B

Date Viewed: 10/17/06
Venue: Universal Screening Room

The Last King Of Scotland is a fictionalized account of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's very brutal and very real rule in the 1970s. While Amin (Forest Whitaker) is the film's focus, we follow Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a young Scottish doctor who comes to Africa for adventure and winds up personal physician to a madman.

The story follows young Garrigan, a Scotsman just out of medical school. Looking for adventure and a way to escape his dreadfully boring parents, he heads to Africa to work as sort of a missionary doctor in rural Uganda. He quickly has a chance run-in with the newly-in-power Amin, who offers the gregarious doctor a job as his personal physician.

Garrigan soon finds himself on the inside of Amin's corrupt and murderous government, advising a man who one day is as gentle as a kitten but the rages like a lion the next. As conditions worsen and assassination attempts upon Amin increase, Garrigan realizes he's in too deep and must try to get the hell out of Uganda...that is, if Amin will let him.

While its Garrigan we follow (he's in every scene), this is really Forest Whitaker's film. Amin is one minute warm, charismatic, and charming, the next calculating and intimidating. It's a juicy role to begin with, and Whitaker makes the most of it, delivering his finest performance to date.

The film is stylishly directed by Kevin MacDonald, who was also the mind behind the electric Three Days In September documentary (which covered the Israeli hostage crisis at the '72 Munich Olympics). The documentarian influence is strong will a lot of visceral handheld work throughout the film. Throw in some trippy editing, and the film oozes the Seventies through and through.

My biggest problem with The Last King Of Scotland is also its gutsiest creative choice. Dr. Garrigan is not the most likeable guy on the planet. He's a selfish ass looking for excitement (in all its forms) who thinks with his dick and continually gets into bad situation after bad situation. However he is effectively our main character. He's in every single scene. But after awhile, I started actually rooting for his eventual comeuppance. I realize this is intentional in some ways. Gullibly self-serving and short-sighted, Garrigan is a cipher for the West's colonization and exploitation of Africa.

This is a solid film with anchored by a spectacular, Oscar-worthy performance by Forest Whitaker. The remaining elements succeed in telling a textured, depressing tale. But I just can't unconditionally love a film with such a misguided main character.