Faust in Africa

Rating: 9/10 (23 January 2007)

Sometimes it's just the element of surprise that makes a movie; when you expect a movie to go one way and it goes the other. "The Last King of Scotland" is like that, (although what surprises may be in store in a movie about Idi Amin may be hard to imagine). But here it's not so much something in the narrative as the way director Kevin Macdonald springs things on us; the slow, soft build-up to the killer punch. Macdonald's background is in documentaries and it shows; the film has a rough edge, a real-life look about it. That feel of being just one step away from a newsreel gives the film a kick.
It's said to be inspired by real events which, of course, doesn't make it true. Rather it's another of Peter Morgan's 'factions', (part fact, part fiction and co-written with Jeremy Brock), dealing with real people in situations which may, or more likely may not, have happened; in this case how a young Scottish doctor, (James McAvoy, first-rate), became principal physician to the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. But the character of the doctor is fictitious, (he is said to be an amalgam of a number of people), so we can only imagine how much we can take at face value. But that's hardly relevant and doesn't detract from the film's overall power. Enough is known of Amin's regime of terror and Forest Whitaker makes him a potent psychopath, charming and seductive one minute, a lethal killer the next. It's a terrific piece of acting. Whitaker not only seduces the young doctor but the audience as well. We know what Amin was capable of but initially we can hardly believe it. That's what I meant when I said the film had an element of surprise. Macdonald confounds our expectations, he throws you off the scent; you are never sure which way the film will turn. Is this really going to be a comedy of manners? (And there is much humour to be had from those early scenes).
And if it all feels familiar it's because we have seen this story before. This is the Faust legend with McAvoy's doctor in the Faust role and Whitaker's Amin as his Mephistopoles. McAvoy sells his soul for a fast car and the promise of easy and available sex, not to mention the delusion that it is he who controls Amin and not the other way round. By the time he realizes Amin is the Devil it is too late. But while the story is as old as the hills Macdonald, Whitaker and Morgan give it a thrilling new slant. This is invigorating, scary stuff; thought-provoking entertainment of the first order.