The Last King of Scotland - Whitaker kills it (in so many ways!)

I don't know how much of 'The Last King of Scotland's' 'story' is based on real life, i.e. how a young, impressionable doctor from Scotland is taken under the wing of one of the most dangerous dictators of recent decades, but, to be honest, I don't care.  Whether the story is 'real' or not (and how many Hollywood films are that true to life these days?) it doesn't really matter.  What is important here is the portrayal Forest Whitaker gives as the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin.

James McAvoy is the young doctor who, unhappy with simply tending to little old ladies in Scotland, thinks he can do more good for those with less access to medicine in the impoverished Uganda.  However, no disrespect to him or his acting ability, but he gets outshone at every turn by Forest Whitaker's 'larger-than-life' portrayal as Amin.  In short, this is Whitaker's film, even though he's - technically - not in it as much as other actors.

I think Whitaker's strength is just how amazingly charming he is.  Yes, most of us going into this film know enough about the real Idi Amin to know that he was responsible for hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths among his own people.  Therefore, this is going to be one hell of a 'baddie' who we're automatically going to hate.  Yet we don't.  And that, as much as we probably don't like to admit it, is what happens in real life.  If you look at some of the worst people in history (Charles Manson, Ted Bundy to name but a couple who spring to mind) the one thing that links them (besides their evil deeds) is that they came across as charming, nice people who others could relate to.  How else would they be able to go so long unnoticed and get away with what they were really doing for so long?

Like I say, I don't care if this story is completely made up.  It's a character portrayal of a man who used his charm and public persona to rise to the top and they prove how much power can then corrupt absolutely.  And for Forest Whitaker's performance this film deserves to be watched.  Maybe if it does have a fault it's that the story never really tells you much about Amin's backstory.  It just presents him as the ruler and yet never really goes into much detail as to how he got where he was.

Oh and Gillian Anderson is in it, too.  But you may just forget about her input completely - again, no criticism on her acting ability, but her character is never really fleshed-out and - again - Whitaker is who we'll all be focusing on.  There's a reason Forest Whitaker won 'Best Actor' at the Oscars for his performance.

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one