Forest Whitaker is larger than life in a terrifying and electric performance

Rating: 8/10 (13 March 2007)

Kevin Macdonald's 'The Last King of Scotland' is a fictional chapter in the life of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker), seen through the eyes of his personal doctor, the fictional Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy; "Chronicles of Narnia"). Garrigan starts off as a big fan of Amin's goals to rebuild Uganda. However, being at Amin's side constantly has blinded him to the horrors Amin is committing: like the genocide of 300,000 of his own people. The film really doesn't show much of the political aspects of Amin's regime, and that's a good thing, as it centers around the relationship between Amin and Garrigan.
As earlier stated, Forest Whitaker delivers not only the best performance of his career, not only the best of 2006, but one of the best performances ever. It is a terrifying show that displays the epitome of insanity and incredible mood swings. Whitaker can be extremely likable and even charming in some scenes, but in the next scene, and sometimes in the same scene, Whitaker can turn into a vicious monster that will scare the audience. He is magnificent in the Oscar winning role that will stick in your brain for years. Never has evil and insanity been portrayed this well. Whitaker also makes his fellow co-star James McAvoy perform extremely well. McAvoy also delivers a multi layered performance as a character who definitely changes throughout the whole movie. He is a strong character, and despite his small size, McAvoy commands the screen and holds his own against the titanic performance of Forest Whitaker. The character arcs of both Amin and Garrigan are brilliant because of Whitaker and McAvoy.
Another strength of the film is the script from Jeremy Brock (Driving Lessons) and Peter Morgan (The Queen). The dialog in particular is very well written, allowing for Whitaker and McAvoy to really bring it. Idi Amin's dialog is extremely good, and it really gives Whitaker a lot of room to do what he does with the character, which as you should know by this point, is extraordinary. The script is fast paced, yet sort of struggles midway through the film, but makes up for it in the climax. Kevin Macdonald's direction of the actors is obviously fantastic, but other than that, he's just average. His vision is pretty ordinary, and considering he was working with 1970's Uganda and dealing with a fictional story, it's a shame he didn't jump at the opportunity to do something really special with the chance.
The last point that I'd like to make is that this film should be viewed with minimal knowledge or research of Idi Amin, so the impact of his - sorry, Forest Whitaker's performance can be experienced to the fullest. If you already know a lot about Amin and his dictatorship, you can still have a great time. I found that it was much more enjoyable experiencing Whitaker embody an evil man that I knew nothing about. The Last King of Scotland is a good political thriller with incredible acting. I recommend it to all above age 16 due to some strong sexual content, nudity, some strong language, and an extremely scary performance from Forest Whitaker.
8/10 --spy