Whitaker was Supporting

Rating: 9/10 (15 August 2007)

I can't believe I never heard any controversy about that. His role was clearly a supporting role in the film. I would have complained during Oscar time but the film wasn't released near me so I didn't see until now. But anyway... I thought the film was great. And not just for his performance which was great but also slightly overrated. James McAvoy did a wonderful job too and I don't think I heard anything about his performance. Sometimes I wonder how much viewers take into a movie about a well known figure and then give the movie or performance credit for their own memories. Because I don't know this Amin guy. I was a little kid at the time. So I didn't have anything to hold him up against. But I'm thinking McAvoy maybe got ignored a little because of that.
About the story itself what I found interesting was how similar the two characters were. I don't think either of them wanted to be defined by where they came from. Garrigan wanted to be Scottish but not British which got him into trouble, and I don't think Amin wanted to be like his fellow villagers which seemed obvious in the torture scene. And speaking of that, I thought this movie was grosser than Hostel. I'm sick of horror movies getting discarded out of hand because they have violent images and then seeing a movie with even more violent images that you never hear about. This movie has two insanely disturbing scenes in it. If you're at all squeamish, prepare yourself.
I thought the film was really great. It has the suspense of a thriller but Oscar caliber performances too. I probably would have given it a 10 if I was more of a fan of politics.