Film Review: 'The Last King of Scotland'

Ruthe Stein, San Fransisco Chronicle Senior Movie Writer
Friday, October 6, 2006

The Last King of Scotland: Drama. Starring Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington and Gillian Anderson. Directed by Kevin Macdonald. (R. 121 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)

The public's perverse fascination with dictators faded quickly for Idi Amin. Forced from power in 1979 after a decadelong reign of terror that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ugandans, he died in obscurity three years ago. Amin did not become the subject of a spate of biopics like those chronicling every step of Hitler's rise and fall.

Now that Hollywood belatedly has gotten around to Amin, he shares screen time with a fictional character, something the self-aggrandizing general surely would have found galling. But the brilliance of "The Last King of Scotland'' -- an immediate contender for Oscar consideration and a spot on critics' top 10 lists -- is the way it shows his dangerous allure through the eyes of an innocent.

The central conceit is that on the cusp of his successful coup, Amin, exuberantly portrayed by Forest Whitaker, has a fateful encounter with a Scottish physician. Politically naive Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) has come to Uganda with his freshly minted medical degree to sow some wild oats and, incidentally, minister to the needy. When the general is injured in a car accident, Nicholas, the only doctor within miles, is called upon to treat him. The two men bond immediately, and Amin -- whose affinity for the Scots, whom he sees as victims of British oppression much as he is, leads him to grandiosely refer to himself as the last king of Scotland -- invites Nicholas to be his personal physician and, ultimately, his closest confidant.

This is spellbinding entertainment, filled with unexpected moments of levity that almost make you feel guilty laughing at the antics of a tyrant. They're like the "Springtime for Hitler" number with no singing and dancing. When Amin becomes convinced that he's been poisoned (an early indication of his paranoia) and demands medical attention in the middle of the night, Nicholas correctly diagnoses severe flatulence and has his patient relieve the symptoms by bending over a stick held tightly against his pot belly.

Director Kevin Macdonald, whose previous experience is limited to documentaries, skillfully brings "Last King" to life, bathing the landscape in pastels and capturing the joviality of the Ugandan people despite the hardships they endure. Screenwriters Peter Morgan ("The Queen") and Jeremy Brock ("Mrs. Brown'') do a splendid job of adapting Giles Foden's award-winning novel, rarely resorting to the sort of annoying voiceover that makes a movie sound like a book on tape.

All of this is in service of a truly astonishing screen performance. Followers of Whitaker's career (his heartbreaking vulnerability as the doomed soldier in "The Crying Game" becomes more memorable with time than its most famous scene) knew he had it in him, given material worthy of his talent.

He starts out playing Amin as a cuddly clown, his large body shaking with mirth, only gradually showing glimpses of the madman within. The laugh goes on too long or the look in his eyes abruptly turns malevolent. The red and gold brocade of his military uniform brings out his imperiousness.

Like most dictators, Amin is a champion seducer, whether of the masses, who believe his claim that he only wants to help them, or of individuals like Nicholas. Whitaker makes these seduction scenes palpable. Unlike Sean Penn's demagogue in "All the King's Men," you're able to forget that Whitaker is acting. He embodies the role. When clips of the real Amin are shown at the end, it's almost shocking to realize the extent to which Whitaker has become him.

Just as the doctor is willingly subservient to the dictator, McAvoy (the faun in "The Chronicles of Narnia'') allows Whitaker to upstage him. It's a wise decision, keeping the film tilted the way it should be. McAvoy effectively creates a portrait of a confused young man, susceptible to Amin's charms. Nicholas likes his pleasures. Upon arriving in Uganda, he puts the moves on his colleague's wife (an arresting Gillian Anderson, who has made fascinating career choices since "The X-Files''). He begins an affair with one of the Ugandan strongman's several wives (Kerry Washington, showing by the terror on her face the fear Amin instills in his women). McAvoy makes clear how easily the doctor can be bought by his unadulterated joy when the dictator presents him with an expensive sports car.

So Nicholas chooses not to believe the stories he hears about atrocities committed by his boss. When a suddenly childlike Amin solicits advice on how to spin stories about him being a nut case and a cannibal, Nicholas coolly tells him not to banish the press but instead to meet with them and pour on the charm, which he does to great effect.

At its heart of darkness, the film is about the lure of power. It's a condemnation of all the dictators' men over all time. Surely some of those who served a Nero or Hussein or Ceausescu had the moral sense to realize that they were aligned with a force of evil. Yet they stuck. Emboldened by Whitaker's unforgettable performance, "The Last King" daringly puts forth reasons for such complicity.

-- Advisory: Extremely violent and disturbing images.

E-mail Ruthe Stein at rstein@sfchronicle.com.

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