Movie Review: Last King of Scotland

Here is my official movie review of “Last King of Scotland”. Mind you, I’m not trying to be anything like a real, quality reviewer. But I figured I might as well start doing movie reviews here as well as just blathering on like normal. Keep in mind, I do give away various things in this review, so don’t read if you want everything to be a perfect surprise. Maybe I’ll learn to give a non-spoiler review in the future. But today is not that day. So without further ado…

I liked the movie. But I didn’t love it. Nor did I like it as much as everyone else apparently did. The acting was phenomenal. Forest Whitaker was simply amazing as Idi Amin. I can’t remember any scene in the movie when I wasn’t 100% sold on the character. It never seemed like he was acting, but that you were watching the real person on the screen. James McAvoy was almost equally good as Dr. Nicholas Garrigan. It possible he was just as good, but just had a less challenging roll with which to work from.

My problem with the movie is the way they end up glazing over a few of the seemingly important plot elements. The first 15 minutes of the movie really moves fast; but not in a good way. The director, Kevin MacDonald, for some reason chose to just give you a small taste of various plot pieces before moving on to something else. I’m sure that it was done to save time for more important scenes, but it left me a bit unfulfilled. The dinner scene with his family, why didn’t they spend more time getting into the relationship between him and his dad? I’m sure there is some important insights that we could have used later to explain his choices. Then there was the relationship between Dr. Garrigan and Sarah Merrit (Gillian Anderson). MacDonald touches on this for 30 seconds, enough for you to realize something is going on, before tossing it away like a hot potato. In fact, the entire aspect with the free clinic was really underdeveloped. This clearly is an important element as he turns his back on them to take the job with Amin. I really think some extra time spent letting the viewers get involved with his relationship with his Dad and the commitment to the clinic would have made the middle portion of the movie better. At the very least it would have helped to better understand his thinking as he’s making the tough decision. The viewer would have had a more emotional connection with his actions instead of just watching and seeing it.

I also felt the end comes rather quickly. Just when things start to pick up and get exciting, they speed right to the conclusion. There is no prolonged tenseness and suspense the way I would have liked to have. Once minute everything is fine, the next minute he’s hanging up by his pectorals in the gift shop.

In the end, the acting really saved this movie for me. To be perfectly honest, Whitaker saved the movie. Without his performance I would have walked away from this movie very disappointed. So kudos to him. He deserved every last bit of praise he received for his work, and every last accolade. Would I recommend that everyone sees this movie? Yes. But not because the movie is great, just to see Whitaker. I now officially release him from my private dungeon due to his involvement in “The Crying Game”.