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THE LAST
KING OF SCOTLAND |
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"Give Me The Oscar
Or I'll Eat Your Heart
Out!" |
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Directed by Kevin
MacDonald - Written by
Jeremy Brock, Giles
Foden
Starring Forest
Whitaker, James McAvoy,
Kerry Washington,
Gillian Anderson
Distributed by Fox
Searchlight - 2006 -
123m - Rated R |
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Charming. Magnetic. Murderous. |
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Some
movies are great because every element falls into place. Other movies
are great because many elements purposely take a step backwards and
let one aspect shine above all.
“The Last King of Scotland” is the latter and the big shining star of
this film is Forest Whitaker, giving not only the best performance of
his career, but also the best performance of the year.
I’m going to call it: Forest Whitaker, Best Actor at the Academy
Awards.
Whitaker plays Idi Amin, the dictator of Uganda who killed hundreds of
thousands of Ugandans before being forced into exile. The film, based
on the novel of the same name, makes the wise choice to view Amin from
another protagonist. If Amin had been the central figure in this story
than there would be absolutely no one to sympathize with. The story is
about a (fictional) Scottish doctor named Nicholas (James McAvoy) who
moves to Uganda to escape his family and through a twist of fate,
becomes Amin’s private doctor. As the years pass, Nicholas learns
exactly what his employer has been doing to the country and tries to
escape.
Okay, so Amin is the villain here. But many truly great movie villains
have one thing in common.
We kinda’ like them.
When we first meet Amin, he is so effortlessly charming and funny that
it easy to see exactly how he charmed not only Nicholas and Uganda,
but the entire world. His eccentricities, including a love of all
things Scottish, are put on full display. Even though we know what
kind of man he is at this point, he remains incredibly likable. The
first half of the film is actually really funny, but almost
seamlessly, the comedy vanishes and before you know it, the monster
has taken over.
Whitaker’s transitions from lovable eccentric to murderer are
astounding. I can’t recall an actor mastering this type of acting so
well since Anthony Hopkins ate people as Hannibal Lecter. This is
masterful and terrifying work and although I have always liked
Whitaker, I honestly never would have though he had this in him. His
voice, his gestures, his screaming moments and his silent moments…
Best of the year? How about one of the best performances of all time?
McAvoy, recently seen embarrassing himself as a centaur pedophile in
“The Chronicles of Narnia,” manages to erase that film completely from
my memory. Whitaker may steal the show, but McAvoy provides a rational
and sane outlet that the audience can take refuge in, especially
during the last half hour, where things become particularly brutal.
The other actors do fine; Kerry Washington shows some decent chops as
one of Amin’s wives and David Oyelowo makes a name for himself as a
fellow doctor to Nicholas. The weak link here is Gillian Anderson,
wasted and out of place in a small, but distracting, role.
This is director Kevin MacDonald’s first non-documentary feature film
and he leaves a strong impression, comfortably handling the early
comedy and the later violence equally well. The last ten minutes are
among the most riveting minutes I have seen put to film; when the
credits rolled, I found that I was gripping my armrests and clenching
my teeth to the point where it became painful.
This film almost has an “A” from me. It is so close, in fact, that
part of me wants to bump it up just for Whitaker. However, a few bits
here and there are troublesome enough to warrant the A-.
MacDonald’s cinematography, although usually fine, often tries too
hard to be “cool” with quick little zooms. It’s ultimately distracting
and, well, just annoying. What also bugged me, and has already been
pointed out elsewhere, is that the timeframe does not feel accurate.
There is no sense that years have passed. The events here feel like a
few months.
Nitpicks, all of them. This is a great film and a strong contender for
my 2006 Top 10 list. |
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© Written by Jacob Hall -
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