The Last King of Scotland (2006) * * *

 

Directed by: Kevin MacDonald

Starring:  Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, David Oyelowo, Gillian Anderson, Simon McBurney

The Last King of Scotland gives us a portrait of the infamous Ugandan dictator Idi Amin seen through the eyes of fictional doctor Nicholas Garrigan (McAvoy), who following medical school graduation in 1970's Scotland randomly points to a spot on the globe and chooses that as his next country to live and work.  His finger chooses Uganda and later he wishes it hadn't.  Nicholas arrives at a clinic in rural Uganda soon after Amin has seized power.  After a chance encounter on a roadway with Amin, Nicholas becomes his friend and closest confidant.  This is a blessing at first, with its perks, but soon Nicholas witnesses Amin in his true form, not as the jovial, playful teddy bear of a man he first meets, but the sadistic, paranoid dictator who ordered the deaths of hundreds of thousands of his people during an eight-year reign.

Forest Whitaker won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Amin.  Whitaker provides a scary presence, not only because we know Amin's history, but because he allows us to see all sides of Amin.  When he first meets Nicholas, he is cordial, funny, and jocular.  Once Nicholas is part of Amin's inner circle, Amin shows his merciless side, a part of him which can rage out of control in a flash.  What is frightening about Amin is what a time bomb he is.  We await the explosion even when he is being generous.  Nicholas moves on from the clinic and becomes Amin's personal physician and soon "head of security," but he finds he's out of his depth.   How can you reason with someone who behaves so erratically, and whose decisions on people's lives depend on his arbitrary whims?  

Lurking in the background are British government officials who see Nicholas' access to Amin as a golden opportunity to keep tabs on him.  Nicholas also falls in love with Kay (Washington), one of Amin's wives and mother to his youngest, but epileptic child.  Life advice to Nicholas:  Don't fall in love with a brutal dictator's wife.   The atmosphere in The Last King of Scotland grows restless and chilling, with Nicholas' world crashing down around him during events such as the crisis at Entebbe which would hasten Amin's downfall.   

The best things about The Last King of Scotland are the Whitaker and McAvoy performances which showcase a friendship which grows deadly for Nicholas and acts as a microcosm for Uganda as a whole during Amin's dictatorship.  Like Hoffa, the story is told through a fictional character.  Why is this device used?  Perhaps as a way to keep such wild-card personalities in perspective.   In both cases, it worked as though the fictional character was real.