A tale of seduction let down by a poor final third

Rating: Null/10 (14 January 2008)

With its 'inspired by true events' rider, The Last King of Scotland tries to persuade the casual viewer that is a true story when it is really just a fictional flight of fancy built around the dangerous but charismatic Ugandan despot Idi Amin. While the story eventually descends into trite melodrama, what comes before gives a reasonably believable depiction of how it must feel to be trapped in a country where human rights count for little, and human life is easily dispensable, even though the subject matter could just as easily have been the seductive allure of crime or drugs.
While James McAvoy gives a decent portrayal of an arrogant young man whose mistaken assumption that he is untouchable belies the youthful impulses that drive him, he would always have been overshadowed by the role of Amin, regardless of who played him, and even had his shallow role not been so poorly developed. As it is, it's doubtful whether the producers could have made a better choice than Forest Whitaker, both physically and performance-wise. Whitaker seems to effortlessly capture the essence of Amin: a cheeky bear of a man, all toothy smile and gleaming eyes, hiding a brooding paranoid who is liable to burst through the cuddly façade at any moment. It's a role that could easily have toppled over into broad parody in less capable hands, but Whitaker is admirable restrained and never allows himself to be swept away by the role.
It is probably the relationship between Garrigan, McAvoy's callow young doctor, and the bloodthirsty dictator that is the film's strength and, given Garrigan's brash disdain for those who are of no use to him, there is a certain guilty pleasure to be derived from his eventual downfall. And that is probably the film's weakness  given that a certain naivety is required on the doctor's part, the film goes too far, failing to pull back and allow the viewer to develop some sympathy for him.