Forest Whitaker deserved his Oscar

Rating: 7/10 (20 August 2008)

I saw it recently on DVD, and I was impressed with Forest Whitaker's performance as Idi Amin. He really had me believe he was the Ugandan dictator. Even though the story is fictitious, I felt I was watching something that really happened in history.
I thought the movie was also admirable in that it didn't try to present the other main character, Garrigan (James McAvoy), in a positive light. As the Scottish doctor who serves as Amin's adviser, Garrigan is neither heroic nor admirable. In fact, well, he's pretty much a je*koff throughout who gets in way over his head, and is finally forced to go along with a very drastic act. He isn't evil or unpleasant, but he's not a very sympathetic character. I was surprised at seeing Gillian Anderson in the movie. I wished she had lost all that weight back when she was in the X-Files.