A rugged suspense thriller that fills you with dread in your stomach

Rating: 6/10 (15 February 2007)

Just in time for awards season, we are presented with a once-in-a-career maniacal, multi-layered and commanding performance. These characters are usually based off notorious historical figures in literature, music, science (Think Virginia Woolf, John Nash, Ray Charles, June Carter, add Idi Amin). These great performances all enhance their spirit and impact on our world history.
The Last King Of Scotland is an adventurous and rugged thriller filmed and set amongst the rough deserts and buzzing cities of 1970s Uganda, Africa. Like the "other" African thriller this year - Blood Diamond - it flaunts invigorating panoramas across the festive and lively people of Africa with some spirited on-set locations.
The story follows Nicholas Garrigan, a newly graduated doctor searching for adventure and a chance to prove his newfound skills to save lives. He ends up in Uganda (by pure luck) and quickly befriends Idi Amin - dictator and ruthless leader. Their strike up a unique friendship and soon, Garrigan is living the high life with Amin - special treatment, boisterous parties, palace luxuries and limitless power. Things get out of hand when Amin's murderous and dogmatic policies result in failure healthcare, a stumbling economy, deaths, and assassination attempts. Garrigan's beliefs and ethics are put to the test when the Amin puts the pressure on him to stay on. Against his will, Garrigan soon ends up running a country he knows nothing about and signing his name in Amin's murderous tactics.
The buzz says that Whitaker will probably win the Oscar for this one (although I prefer another leading South-African performance this year). He is impressive throughout, stealing the show in every scene he's in. He commands a frightening bipolar authority that is so charismatic and likable even in his moments of rage. His gaiety and jestery is so contagious that it easy to see why Garrigan forms such a close so quickly with him. And with Garrigan we also begin to see the precarious edge of his power to nasty consequences. But I must say that I really felt Whitaker should have contributed more him to the story. His appearances in the film were a little too disjointed and I compare the performance to that of Kidman's 2002 Woolf. All show but not enough maturity. I really wanted to know so much more about him - his rise and demise, and more character development. As a result, he came off as only series of ferocious vignettes rather than than the whole portrait he could have been.
McAvoy carries the film for the entire duration well, serving as our eyes and our ears pulling us into his world. He does a commendable job and is enjoying a worthy bookmark in his career. It is chilling to see his world cracking apart and through his eyes it only too easily becomes our world too.
I really would have liked to see more of Gillian Anderson's character. She is undergoing an interesting revival, doing the circuits. She is developed well at the start with some absorbing mysteries and a curious history, but we almost never see her again in the film and the opportunity is totally wasted.
The story is suspenseful throughout but I felt that the editing could have been much sharper, plus/minus a few extraneous characters. In addition, the film's subject matter just didn't interest me as much as it should have - perhaps because it wasn't my cup of tea (no fault to the film intended). The scenery is vibrant for the most part showing of the exotic tones of Amin's palace and the harshness of the African nation.
This is Macdonald's first fiction feature after the excellent dramatised documentaries, One Day In Sept & Touching The Void. With this film, Macdonald proves his niche in dealing with shocking historical events bending the line between gut-wrenching suspense and hard non-fiction. In "Last King", he remains so true and honourable to the material all the way. A thrilling and suspenseful thriller, with some historical eye openers thrown in for kicks. However not quite my style - only an average drama for me but worth looking into for the memorable performance.