the superb performance by Forest Whitaker is part of the failure of this film

Rating: 6/10 (4 August 2008)

One of the problems with 'The Last King of Scotland' is that it is too much a pleasant and commercial film. Dealing with one of the most horrible dictators of the 20th century the makers of this film may have been concerned that the subject is too difficult for a film to be successful. They so try to create a flawless action (although the final looks less credible) and they casted Forest Whitaker to act as Idi Amin. His act is superb, but is also part of the failure of the film in my eyes.
The balancing figure of the film and the main character filling the screen time is the dictator personal physician acted by James McAvoy. He is also meant to symbolize the blindness and indifference of the post colonial West, less caring about the human rights in the colonies they just abandoned and failing to understand both local realities as well as the evil of some of the rulers they put in place. However, the young McAvoy is a miscast, he is too young and without being a bad actor misses the complexity and angoisse that must have stroked a real doctor Garrigan.
So the film is left on the shoulders of Whitaker, whose Amin is credible, although probably not historically true. His superb acting holds the movie together with the splendid camera work and makes it enjoyable if one can enjoy the fascination of evil, but overall the movie misses to tell many of the truths it could about Africa and dictatorship. I was disappointed.