An ordinary piece of slapdash

Rating: 3/10 (17 August 2008)

The biggest mistake of this wrong movie is that it's about Garrigan, young man that is in turns uninteresting, insipid and annoying. The movie is not about Idi, but about a brainless physician that has a preference for others' wives. The character is so uninteresting and flat, and it is so uninterestingly portrayed (the problem is not with making films about uninteresting common people, but in making blatantly uninteresting films about uninteresting people ) that this rudimentary portray of a boring, dull, shallow young man, deprived of any charm or wit, is absolutely null. I do not understand how this dull movie could be mistaken for a political movie or for a biopicit is not a film about a man's way in politics, and it is not a biopic about Amin. Garrigan's small time idylls with married women in Africa is below any narrative merit.
Not one portrayal is successful. Another piece of slapdash, hollow, without any artistic interest,made by one of the imbeciles empowered as directors. It completely lacks the gusto, the true inner dynamism (not its ridiculous mechanical counterfeiting). Among the many flicks about an exotic country in political crisis, with a Caucasian jeopardized, THE LAST KING  ranks among the worst. Briefly,it has nothing to say. Why did they presume that Garrigan is of any interest, when he is a pathetic dolt, uninterestingly, even annoyingly portrayed? He's no Sorel, to be sure. He's a small time adventurer, profoundly insipid, who flirts with politics. It's by far the worst kind of schmaltz the political exploitation. I could not detect any artistic intention, any idea about the subjectonly the trite exploits of an uninteresting Scottish physician. The flick is remarkably poorpoor as action, as characterizations, as ideas. Not one character is even remotely interesting. The sex scenes are the only things quite enjoyable. The flick was poorly conceived. Macdonald is no Costa Gavras.
Having no dramatic content, THE LAST  is less interesting than a good documentary. The real Amin in the final footage is more interesting than FW's impersonation. The impression left is that Macdonald had nothing to say with his flick. Another anaerobic movie. Everything is pretty phony and banal.