The Last King Of Scotland

Based on Giles Foden's novel, 'The Last King Of Scotland' is a fictional depiction of Uganda following Idi Amin's coup d'etat in the early 1970s.

The film's story is told from the perspective of Nicholas Garrigan - a recently qualified Scottish doctor - who is working in a mission hospital in Uganda as a way of spiting his father's plans for him to join the family practice. Following a chance encounter with Uganda's new president, Garrigan finds himself becoming Amin's personal physician and confidant. The film starts off gently with Garrigan slowly being seduced by all that the charismatic Amin has to offer him; he doesn't take much persuading to move from the sparse mission hospital (even if it does offer the charms of Gillian Anderson) to a plush private residence in Kampala.

As the film progresses, however, Garrigan is slowly drawn into and becomes complicit in the horrors that surround Amin's dictatorship; a vocalised suspicion leads to the 'disappearance' of the country's health minister. Before he realises it, Garrigan finds himself beyond the point of no return and desperate measures are needed if he is to save his own life.

The mood of the film changes almost imperceptibly, what starts off as a vibrantly colourful film slowly gets darker. Like Garrigan, the viewer is lured into the spider's web, with only the occasional glimpse that something is wrong; the true horror of Amin's regime isn't exposed until quite late into the film. This subtle change in mood is similar to that seen in Richard Loncraine's film adaptation of 'Richard III', where you only realise that Richard's army has slowly transmogrified into wearing black uniforms moments before he goes and delivers a Nuremberg-esqe speech.

The film stars Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy as Amin and Garrigan respectively, both excellent in their roles. Whitaker convincingly turns from charmer to monster (sometimes during the course of a scene). As a counterpoint, McAvoy is utterly believable as someone who slowly realises that he maybe beyond redemption; he starts off all 'bright-eyed and bushy-tailed' and ends the film a broken shadow of his former self. The performance of the film's main actors is bolstered by a uniformly impressive supporting cast, to highlight any of them would do a disservice to those that don't get mentioned.

All in all, 'The Last King Of Scotland' is an impressive 'period thriller' and recommended (albeit disturbing) viewing.