Powerful and very much dominated by Whitaker

Rating: 8/10 (10 May 2015)

Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) is a newly qualified doctor who heads out to Uganda to work at one of their rural hospitals with a couple of British doctors. Along the way he strikes up a friendship with President/General Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker). Garrigan ends up working for Amin as his physician and one of his closest advisors. British doctor Sarah Merritt (Gillian Anderson) tries to warn Garrigan that Amin may not be all that he seems, but Garrigan refuses to listen. However, as time passes Garrigan begins to notice Amin's increasingly erratic behaviour and starts to discover exactly who he's working for.
I'm a fairly young pup so I wasn't alive during Amin's evil regime. For that reason I'm not really in a position to comment on how well Whitaker portrays Amin. However, I am in a position to judge his on-screen performance and I must say that he was outstanding. Like many of the great 'method' actors, Whitaker stayed in character both on set and off set and also put on an extra 50 pound of weight for the role. Whitaker is a good actor generally, but I really think this role meant a lot to him and his hard work paid off with a thoroughly deserved Oscar win. Whitaker's chilling portrayal was nothing short of incredible and is easily the best performance that I've seen from him. McAvoy is good here, but at this point in his career I still think he was a little rough around the edges - although I must admit he has improved over time. I still find it hard to believe that a fairly big Hollywood actor like McAvoy used to star in UK based sitcom Early Doors which is set in my neck of the woods in Manchester.
I did have a couple of minor issues with this film; I thought that the British doctors were a little under-used and contributed next to nothing to the film. It's possible Macdonald may have cast them in the film because Amin had British doctors working for him although this is unclear. The film also had a sleazy edge to it that it perhaps did not need. I also thought the ending was perhaps a bit too 'Hollywood' but it was at least fairly exciting.
Overall then there is a lot to recommend here. The film is well-shot with some very nice cinematography. Whitaker's performance was incredible and the film itself moved along fairly well considering its 120 minute length. It may not be totally accurate, but it's a powerful film that is well worth watching.