FILM NAME: The last king of Scotland

FILM COMPANY: Film4, DNA Films, Slate Films, Cowboy Films, Tatfilms, Fox Searchlight Pictures

DIRECTOR: Kevin MacDonald

PRINCIPAL ACTORS: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, Simon McBurney

DATE OF RELEASE: NOW ON DVD

GENRE: Art/Foreign, Drama, Adaptation and Politics/Religion

FILM LENGTH: 2 hrs. And 1 min

RATING: R

WEBSITE: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/lastkingofscotland/

2 ½ Stars

Reviewed By: Emily Axelson

Based on the incredible life story of Idi Amin who was responsible for 300,000 murders of his country’s people, the last king of Scotland is told from the point of view of Idi Amin’s private physician Dr. Nicholas Garrigan. This film is equipped with everything to make a fantastic movie; great actors, a decent director, and a terrific storyline. Sadly, I was disappointed with the quality of the film. Forrest Whitakers’ acting is not even questionable, he delivered it brilliantly, but I felt that the quality of the film let me down.

Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) is a Scottish doctor coming to Uganda trying to land a job assisting in a rural hospital. When he arrives, he meets the president of Uganda, Idi Amin (Forrest Whitaker) who has a strange fascination with Scotland, and Idi and Nicholas hit it off instantly. Nicholas’ dreams of working in a rural hospital are put on hold when Idi offers him the irresistible job of working as his private physician -- he accepts. Idi and Nicholas become great friends, but as the years pass, various countries accuse him of a variety of acts, including cannibalism, and Idi becomes dangerously paranoid about assassination of Uganda, and he orders the murder of everyone he assumes to be a threat to his country. Innocent people are getting murdered, and Nicholas is horrified, but Idi is unwilling to allow him to leave. At this point, the film transforms from a cheerful mood to a gripping race for survival. Just when it seems that matters can’t get worse, Nicholas falls for Idi’s wife Kay Amin, (Kerry Washington). They try to keep their love a secret, to protect themselves from the murderously violent Idi, but Idi’s insane paranoia sends Uganda headed for a bloody doom.

This film was far from what I expected. I expected an interesting story about the life of Idi Amin. I also expected amazing acting from Forest Whitaker considering his many wins for best actor, including the academy awards, actors’ guild and the golden globes. I got some of the expected and some of the unexpected from The last king of Scotland. It was an interesting story, and Forest Whitaker’s acting was phenomenal, and he completely deserved every award he received. However, although I was aware of the violent history of Idi Amin’s life, I did NOT expect them to go all out and show all the blood and gore of the murderous events; gore is shameless and a cheap way of expression on film. For me personally, the gore really took away from the film and lost impact for the story. If gore doesn’t bother you, I think you will enjoy the film a great deal more than I did.

Another aspect that took away from the film was James McAvoy’s character Nicholas Garrigan and Kerry Washington’s character Kay Amin; I got the impression that they were personified as the heroes, but they were hardly heroic, in fact far from it. At times, I felt these two characters to be down right foolish. Since the opening of the film, Nicholas was a lady’s man, having short flings with many women. He knew all about Idi’s deadly temper, and in the middle of his rage, he went and had an affair with his wife. I know that I can’t place the blame on the directors or the writers of this film, considering it’s based on a true story, but I would NOT personify them forever on film as the protagonists. Occasionally, a film with all villains and no heroes works; A Slight Case Of Murder was such a movie and executed this task more efficiently then The last king of Scotland shaped itself.

Although, the film succeeded in some ways; the attempted mood was fear and suspense and was accomplished. I felt frightened for about the last half, but I think that could have been accomplished even more without the extended gore scenes.

This is a prime example that first impressions are not always correct. In some cases that is a good thing, but in this case, it was not. I think that a big part of the reason why this movie disappointed me was because of my immense expectations for it. When you assume something is going to be outstanding, you are often disappointed. This film is overrated concerning the quality of it. Forest Whitaker’s acting however is not in the least bit overrated.

Every once in a while the acting of one individual is so compelling to the audience that the performance can carry the film; to me, Forest Whitaker’s performance saved this film.