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Film review

A despot who's dead-on

Forest Whitaker's Golden Globe-winning turn as Idi Amin moves The Last King of Scotland from middling to something approaching majestic.

By Steve Persall
Published January 18, 2007

Forest Whitaker captures the capricious moods of dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.
	[Fox Searchlight]

Forest Whitaker's fearsome portrayal of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin saves The Last King of Scotland from collapsing under the white man's burden, the show biz notion that white heroes are wisest about African problems.

Amin is decidedly the villain of the piece, as any despot who ordered thousands of deaths should be. Whitaker makes him as frightening as any actor could, not only for his violent temper but for the calm, even amusing lapses into an oddly likable personality.

Each hearty laugh and moment of childish curiosity draws us closer, like rats being seduced by a cobra. Each twitch of Whitaker's wonky eye signals a madman ready to strike. This is a bravura performance from an actor mostly known for bearish vulnerability, unleashing danger that could erupt only from a role of invincibility.

Critics' awards and the Oscar nomination coming Whitaker's way are deserved. The performance deserves more screen time than the circumstances of Giles Foden's adapted novel present. Amin is simply a key player in the journey of a fictional Scottish doctor named Nicholas Garrigan James McAvoy, who accidentally becomes Amin's reluctant personal physician.

Nicholas randomly chose Uganda as a place to aid victims of poverty and to score women as counterculture mores allowed. He appears to be set, bedding down with a married clinic supervisor (Gillian Anderson) behind her wimpy husband's back. That triangle delays Whitaker's arrival, although Amin's popularity in the afterglow of a coup is obvious through background sights and sounds. Nicholas is impressed.

The men meet by chance, after a minor auto accident injures Amin's hand. Nicholas offers treatment, and the president admires his Scotland soccer shirt. Amin loves that country's fighting spirit, having served in the king's African Rifles corps. Nicholas has an immediate, gregarious friend, whether he wants one or not.

Amin invites Nicholas into his inner circle, with all the corrupt perks that entails; it's a perfect situation for a 1970s sexual revolutionary. Then there's an ill-advised affair with one of Amin's wives (Kerry Washington) that steers director Kevin Macdonald's film from historical interests to generic melodrama. Nicholas won't get away with it, and too much time is spent on his chances of escaping Amin's wrath instead of on the dictator's immensely more interesting story.

McAvoy doesn't fully explore the brashness Nicholas would need to speak up to a mass murderer. Whitaker senses that gap and uses it as an advantage, making Nicholas a toy that is batted by a nasty cat. Their scenes together have a fanciful vibe that distracts from the horrors Amin commits that Nicholas gradually understands. Placing the doctor at center stage cheats history, Whitaker and the audience.

But when given the chance, Whitaker commands the screen like no other actor in 2006. Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson) and Peter O'Toole (Venus) delivered more nuanced performances, providing his closest rivals for awards. Whitaker's ferocious portrayal might scare them off the ballot.

Review

The Last King of Scotland

Grade: B

Director: Kevin Macdonald

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

Screenplay: Peter Morgan, Jeremy Brock, based on the novel by Giles Foden

Rating: R; strong violence and profanity, gruesome images, sexual content

Running time: 123 min.

[Last modified January 17, 2007, 06:55:38]