Where life is not a game, as the good doctor discovers.

Rating: 7/10 (10 March 2008)

I saw Forest Whitaker first in that great British thriller, The Crying Game (1992), and was quite impressed with his performance; only later did I catch up on his earlier movies like Platoon (1986), The Color of Money (1986), Diary of a Hit-man (1991) and many others. In this one, his skill at acting reached a new high and he deservedly won the best actor award at the Awards in 2007.
I'm not so enthusiastic about the story, however, for a variety of reasons.
As with all historical dramas, there is the problem of stepping into the shoes of real people, and developing realistic scenarios and dialog with which to integrate the addition of fictional characters. I'm aware that that the author had access to a lot of material with which to write his novel and that the character of Dr Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) was based in part upon a real-life English mercenary who was a confidant of President Idi Amin.
For this story, however, it is a young Scots doctor, fresh from graduation, beginning his career in Uganda at a medical mission. Through a fortuitous accident, Garrigan gets to treat Amin for a sprained wrist after the President's car crashed into a local cow. Amin is so impressed with Garrigan's spunk at that scene, that he invites the young doctor to Kampala and offers him a job as the President's 'advisor'  and as the chief medical officer at the local hospital; the previous occupant is demoted or fired  I'm still not sure which. Now that's what I call a meteoric rise in status. In that, I can just suspend my disbelief to let the story continue...
For the next hour or so, we are then treated to scenes of the strengthening bond between Garrigan and Amin, and seeing only what Garrigan sees: Amin playing soccer with local lads, swimming with his friends at a big party, letting Garrigan take charge of negotiations for the design and construction of a new hospital, and so on. Only occasionally, do we hear the sound of gunfire and smoke from somewhere on the horizon. The good doctor is vaguely uneasy, but is not sure why.
However, telling the story from the doctor's perspective allows the author to indulge in whatever takes his fancy  or, in this case, the doctor's fancy. Being a very normal and active heterosexual, live-action Scot - and almost red-headed - Garrigan eventually gets involved with one of Amin's wives. Things get out of hand, and they eventually become highly erotic lovers. The situation worsens when she tells him she is pregnant, and pleads for an abortion. At first he balks, but then agrees. From that point on, his descent into horror is guaranteed - and just as the Israeli hostage situation at Entebbe begins...
Whitaker very effectively shows Amin for what he was: an egocentric, erratic, violent, drug-addicted and paranoid dictator of the worst kind; mild words for a man who is reckoned to have slaughtered 300,000 of his citizens. It's not a pleasant portrayal at all, and Whitaker is to be commended for taking on the task.
Garrigan, as played by McAvoy however, is totally vacuous, in my opinion: a character so caught up in his own egocentricity that he fails to notice the web in which he's become entangled, and obviously fails to do sensible things like listen to the BBC for real news, read foreign newspapers or even call friends and family in the UK to find out the truth about Amin. No, he does none of those things because he's too busy having a good time, driving the convertible Merc that Amin gave to him, and getting in too deep with one of Amin's wives. And, all the time, he thinks he's getting away with it all... Can a doctor really be that stupid? I suppose so, but in that case, his character is totally unlikable, and he thoroughly deserves the contemptuous nickname for him that is bandied about by Amin's goons.
And, on that score, the only likable characters in the whole story are Dr Merrit (Adam Kotz) and his wife, Sarah (Gillian Anderson) who appear only in the first twenty minutes, with Sarah only reappearing once, briefly, as Garrigan tries to flee Uganda. Her look, when she sees him, says it all.
It's a well produced and directed film, however; and the soundtrack is lyrical and yet stirring at times, full of the rhythm and beat of African music. It was a real pleasure to hear. In the final twenty minutes, however, the scenes of violence are such that many, I think, will be sickened  but, it's where the good doctor finally wakes up to the living nightmare in which he had been sleepwalking.
Not recommended for children. As a piece of real history, it's not worth your time to see. For superb acting, however, Whitaker is worth your time. And McAvoy does a good job with an unappealing role. But, there's a lot of blood at the end.