The movie was a classic portrayal of man's inner conflict.

Rating: 8/10 (5 December 2011)

Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) was unhappy with his situation in Scotland, living under his father's roof and not being able to live up to his expectations. His thinking was "any place is better than this" so he spun a globe and randomly landed on Uganda. He will soon find out that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.
This movie has two main themes: the first (as mentioned above) is that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. The second main theme is the corruption of power. Idi Amin (Forest Whittaker) starts out the movie as an idealistic, man "for the people", however his presidency turned him into a ruthless dictator who only cared for himself and soon trusted nobody. Thousands of his countrymen, even close advisers, were killed under his brutal regime, merely for the fear that they would threaten his seat of power. The way the doctor leaves his normal life and lives in an entirely different, corrupted world is reminiscent of the movie "Donnie Brasco" (1997). Though the settings are entirely different, the themes are similar. There are a couple scenes in the movie where the doctor has an inner struggle with ethics and loyalty. He is so bent on staying away from home that he often chooses the "wrong" path and remains loyal to Amin. There is one scene where he tells the president of a bad feeling he had about the Minister of Health talking to a white man at the Holiday Inn, even though Nicholas knows there's a chance that he may be harmed. You can clearly see this when Dr. Garrigan even says to Amin, "Just talk to him; don't do anything." He knows something may happen, and the minister is later executed. This is when Nicholas realizes he has started to go down the wrong path and that the grass truly -isn't- greener and decides he needs to go home.
Some thematic elements in The Last King of Scotland that were done well (although not anything fresh or spectacular) were lighting and angles. The lighting would often grow dark during the sad, intimidating, or "heavy", parts of the film and bright during the parts that everything appeared to be alright. The angles played around the position of power, where they would look up at Idi Amin as being the one in position of power, and down on others, etc.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would recommend it movie to anyone who enjoys an in-depth journey into man's inner conflict.