Fine film

Rating: 8/10 (29 January 2007)

Historical horror movie about General Idi Amin, the brutal Ugandan dictator of the 1970s. It's told through the eyes of a fictional person (as far as I can tell), Nicholas Garrigan. In the film, he's a Scot who comes to Uganda as a doctor. Upon a chance meeting with the new President, Garrigan is taken to the country's capital to be his head physician. Garrigan is more or less in isolation. He's having a ball while the rest of the country is going to Hell. Amin treats him well, and by the time it becomes apparent that he's hardly the benevolent dictator he presents himself as, Garrigan can't get away. Perhaps it's disingenuous to create a fictional character in this situation, but Idi Amin himself is too much of a beast to focus the entire film on. It works better to make him the monster at the edge of the frame. I wouldn't say Whitaker gives the very best performance of 2006, but he is excellent, and deserving of his eventual Oscar. It's not a great film, but I really liked it. It's scary and gripping from first to last.