Excellent, but painfully grim in parts

Rating: 7/10 (15 November 2013)

The Last King of Scotland is a biopic with a twist. It is ostensibly a film about young Scottish medical graduate Nicholas Garrigan (McAvoy) and his somewhat aimless decision to travel to Uganda. Except of course it's not about him at all. Nicholas is merely a looking glass through which the infamous dictator Idi Amin (Whitaker) can be viewed. Amin's legend is such that a pure biopic may have been overwhelming. Viewing him and his larger than life persona though a naive young Scotsman's eyes makes him more palatable.
Naive is the optimum word for the young doctor. He is bowled over by Amin's rabble-rousing speeches, caught up in the excitement and the bluster. "Come on, give the man a chance," he splutters to a more cerebral colleague.
This admiration turns to borderline infatuation when, during a chance encounter, Nicholas bonds with the Ugandan leader over a love of Scotland. Things escalate and before long Nicholas is appointed as Amin's personal physician. Not a bad post for someone just weeks out of medical school.
And who can really blame him for accepting the role? The danger signs in Amin and his regime are there - his exuberance, his certainty that he knows his date of death through a vision, signs of totalitarian violence on the street. But these (bar the last one) can be passed off as eccentricities, and must have been small fry when compared to the intoxicating aroma of power.
As Amin's paranoia grows, Nicholas gets more and more out of his depth. Officials disappear without trace, Nicholas is forbidden to leave and, slowly but surely, things begin to fall apart.
When the true horror of Amin's regime finally becomes clear to the doctor, the extent of his naivety and wilful blindness, along with his inability to keep his trousers on, catch up with him. In fact, they don't just catch up; they overtake, and then lap him. Twice.
The Last King of Scotland is a thriller at heart, and, in places, an incredibly grim one. The tension through the latter half is palpable, rising to an almost unbearable crescendo at its frantic climax.
McAvoy is excellent as the foolish yet ultimately good-hearted doctor, allowing the fear to seep through as he realises what he's got himself into. But it is Whitaker who steals the show, perfectly capturing the essence of Idi Amin in all his magnetic insanity and chronic instability. It's a towering performance that transforms the film from a good, solid thriller into an excellent and important character study.