Well done study of a charismatic nutjob

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2006)

"The Last King of Scotland" is an interesting film. It tells the story of tyrant and murderer Idi Amin, as told through the eyes of a fictional Scottish doctor.
It's pretty fascinating, how Amin's charisma kept the world guessing, at least during the early parts of his tenure. Forest Whitaker does an outstanding job portraying the nutbag, egocentric tyrant. But, in typical Hollywood storytelling, he's just a side character.
The real story concerns the moral dilemmas faced by the fictional Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrison, who befriends Amin and ends up in the bear cage. James McAvoy does a great job playing this character, he's a very fine actor, but I have to admit, the contrived storyline ends up being a negative for the film. I wound up investing a lot of time and compassion for this naive and torn character, yet later I found out he was an entirely fictional creation, and it was really a let-down.
It's one thing to invent a character to ease in the telling of a story, this is done all the time. But to invent the lead role, and make the primary role of interest the secondary role, just cheats the audience immensely.
Personally, I think they invented a white character to make the film marketable. The filmmakers should have learned from the excellent Hotel Rwanda, such a thing is not necessary. But, alas, the producers are still stuck in the stone age ...
Fine performances all around, including not only Whitaker and McAvoy, but the cadre of supporting *black* actors who give tremendous performances in everything from Ministers of Health to neglected wives to lounge singers really makes this film great.
8 out of 10, two points taken off for the contrived plot line.
Barky