Review: The Last King Of Scotland

Review: The Last King Of Scotland (Kevin MacDonald, 2006, UK/USA)

One of the more hyped films in both the upmarket papers, The Guardian, The Independent etc, and the most upmarket film magazine in Britian, Sight & Sound, for a good few months now, The Last King Of Scotland arrives on the scene with an awful lot of pre-release hype. Forest Whitaker has already won many awards and is hotly tipped to win an Oscar and the director Kevin MacDonald is a critical darling working on his first ficitonal narrative film. Does the film live up to all the pre-release buzz? In a word, yes.

Johnathan Kerrigan (James McAvoy) is a recently qualified doctor looking for some excitement before embarking on a career as a family doctor. He decides upon working in the villages of Uganda. After a chance incident involving a cow, Idi Amin (Forest Whittaker) and a sprained hand, he is asked to become Idi Amin's physcian. What he does not expect is that as he becomes one of Amin's closest advisors, he will be drawn into a world he can't escape.

The Last King Of Scotland is an odd beast of a film. In the beginning we cannot help but be sucked into the world of Kerrigan. He is obviously a but of a bastard, trying to get into women's pants at every opportunity (Within the first 5 minutes he manages to sleep with a random woman on a bus), but it seems we can relate to him as a young man trying to have a good time before settling into the monotony of working adult life. The world of Uganda is also initially displayed as a world of hope; all the people Kerrigan experiences seem to be happy especially with the coup which has just taken place, putting Amin in power. The first meeting of Kerrigan and Amin also walks a fine line between funny and unsettling and really pulls it off. Amin is charismatic, playful and maybe just a little bit... childish?

This playful tone is very carefully interjected with sinister events as the film unfolds and as it goes on the balance starts to shift. MacDonald working from a script from Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock plays this beautifully and the film turns into a rather tense little thriller detaling Kerrigan's attempts to escape with his life. The film manages to be the weridest of hybrids, a coming of age comedy, a serious study of a terrible and yet seductive man and a conventional thriller. The only thing which felt forced to me was the aspect involving Amin's wife. In terms of conventioanl story telling I understand why it was introuduced, however the film up to this point does not seem to follow any real stereotypes and yet this is one of the oldest in the book. The fate of Amin's wife is anything but conventioanl and provides the climax to what is certainly the most disturbing scene of the film.

James McAvoy does very well with what could be a one-note role, the obnoxious, arrogant young man. His arrogance is broken down throughout the film and McAvoy makes this apparent in even his body language. By the end of the film, the man deserves to die and yet you do not want to see him get fully consumed by the world of Amin. Only a truly great actor could pull that off. Forest Whittaker pretty much runs away with the film. He completely gets taken over by the role, he does not play the calm, patient man seen in films such as Ghost Dog or Panic Room, and he does not appear to be himself. His charming facade is wonderfully played but what is better is his portrayal of the childish brute which he becomes whenever things start to slip from his grasp. Enough praise has been lavished on him from all circles so I'll just say this: I agree with all of it.

One of the best thrillers of recent years, and a fascinating look into the mind of a madman, The Last King Of Scotland deserves to be one of the biggest British films of the year and incidentally, is a stunning return to form for the newly relaunched production arm of Film4.

In the second week of January, we have already seen what will be one of the best films of the year.