Last King of Scotland reviews

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Post by Sonic Youth »

I liked this more than I was expecting to. It's not the most sophisticated filmmaking, over-elucidating its points. But period and geographical atmosphere count for a lot, and filming at the actual Ugandan locations gives it a bracing immediacy. And yeah, Whitaker's superb, going from extreme to extreme in a mere flick. Try to find some archival footage of Idi Amin, and you'll see how precisely Whitaker nailed it.
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Post by Mister Tee »

This isn't a top-rank movie -- my wife and I were asked to fill out an audience survey on the way out, and we independently each graded it "B". It's mostly absorbing (except for a dip in the early second hour), has many nice narrative and directorial touches (along with some contrived plot developments, mostly centered around the Kerry Washington character), and rallies for a solid finish. And it captures an authentic African feel for at least part of the time (well more than Hotel Rwanda ever managed). But it's a bit maddening because its occasional melodramatic turns or bum dialogue (from the Brit characters, chiefly) work against the solid characterizations and scenes.

Beyond all those objections, though, it's a worthy showcase for a very good performance by McAvoy -- who nicely conveys idealism alternating with youthful recklessness -- and a superb one by Whitaker. (Roeper and Smith are full of it, by the way: Whitaker is a co-lead by any standard -- McAvoy's character is the center of the story, but Whitaker's never off-screen more than a few minutes at a time). Whitaker gives us an Amin who's charming when he wants to be (when he's reeling people in), but clearly capable of monstrosity at any moment. It's an intensely physical performance -- making great use of Whitaker's enormous bulk, but also his droopy eyes -- and a fully charismatic one. Of course, many will say it's the sort of role in which it's easy for actors to excel, and that's certainly true -- but why hold that against Whitaker? He's definitely at full strength here, giving easily the best male performance I've seen to date this year.
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Post by FilmFan720 »

Don't know if anyone else caught Ebert and Roeper this weekend, but both Roeper and Kevin Smith praised Whitaker's performance. However, both also made a big point of mentioning that Whitaker wasn't in enough of the film, and Smith made it clear that Whitaker would win this years Best SUPPORTING Actor Oscar. Could be something to keep our eyes on, a possible category change for an early front-runner?

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Post by Okri »

Well, Peter Morgan's having a sensational year - two films and one West End play.
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The Last King of Scotland

By TODD MCCARTHY
Variety



A supersized performance by Forest Whitaker dominates "The Last King of Scotland" and rightfully so, as he portrays one of recent history's great monsters, General Idi Amin Dada of Uganda. Helmer Kevin Macdonald's plunge into full-fledged dramatic filmmaking after the partial crossover from documentaries in "Touching the Void" starts well, but trips over preposterous plot developments as it pushes toward its climax. Unusual material and a measure of critical acclaim will give this Fox Searchlight title a decent shot at good biz in specialized release.

Hugely charming when he wants to be, but with a changeability that can turn on a dime to appalling evil, Whitaker's Amin is a man with an iron whim who engages a Scottish doctor as his personal physician after being impressed with his handling of a roadside emergency. This is a fictionalized version of the dictator's rise, wallow in excess and lurch toward the abyss as seen by the brash young medic, based on the acclaimed 1998 novel by Giles Foden.

One improvement screenwriters Peter Morgan ("The Queen") and Jeremy Brock ("Mrs. Brown") make at the outset is turning the relatively bland do-gooder Scotsman of the book into a brash, cocky young adventurer who's ready for anything. Upgrade results in a Nicholas Garrigan, agreeably if not always sympathetically played by James McAvoy, who's not only more entertaining than his counterpart on the printed page, but more plausible as a devil-may-care guy who boldly speaks his mind to Amin while others cower in fright.

Picking Uganda virtually at random as a place where his new medical degree could be put to good use, Nicholas is first stationed at a remote village where he instantly puts the moves on older woman Sarah Merrit (Gillian Anderson), the attractive wife of the area's hard-working British physician (Adam Kotz). It's 1971, and together Nicholas and Sarah attend a rousing back-country rally where Amin, having just ousted the country's corrupt, communist-leaning leader, Milton Obote, dazzles the locals as well as the naive newcomer, to Sarah's consternation.

After the president's injured hand is neatly bandaged by Nicholas and he realizes the heritage of his chance benefactor, Amin, who long served in the King's African Rifles, sings the praises of the Scottish, deeming them among the bravest fighters on Earth. Director Macdonald, a Scotsman himself, stages a hilarious scene in which Amin appears at a public ceremony wearing a kilt surrounded by Africans performing a Scottish song.

Any misgivings erased by Amin's evident affinity for him, not to mention the leader's genuinely ingratiating persuasiveness, Nicholas accepts his new job and immediately reaps the rewards: a nice apartment within the immaculate presidential compound, a Mercedes convertible, women personally selected by Amin and, above all, unrestricted access to the big boss himself, who deliberately denigrates other members of his inner circle by calling Nicholas his closest adviser.

An alarming episode that only serves to strengthen the bond between the two men has Amin impulsively asking Nicholas to drive him to the airport in the convertible. En route, Amin's limousine, traveling ahead, is ambushed by gunmen. The aftermath, when the would-be assassins are dealt with, reveals to Nicholas the extent of Amin's fury for the first time.

This entire first section is quite engaging for several reasons: the fluky circumstances creating the main characters' bond (Amin's actual physician was Scottish, although much older), Whitaker's utterly convincing portrayal of Amin's larger-than-life appeal and moodiness, and the view the film provides of a rarely seen location, the attractively modern capital Kampala. This is reportedly the first Western production to shoot in Uganda since the second unit of "The African Queen" 56 years ago, and certainly the first time its main city has been shown. To have the action play out in its proper setting adds immensely to pic's interest.

Before long, however, intimations of Amin's misdeeds begin accumulating; judges, rival politicians and others go "missing," and Nicholas gets in hot water when he treats one of his boss's many children, an epileptic boy, and becomes ill-advisedly involved with the mother, Kay (Kerry Washington), an out-of-favor wife of the president.

No matter how impudent Nicholas is capable of being, and no matter how drunk at the time, his rash decision to get it on with a Mrs. Amin is ludicrous; it's a ruinous narrative ploy that signals the undue melodrama that overtakes the picture from this point on. Nicholas' fate and efforts to escape Uganda are linked to the pro-Palestinian hijacking of an Air France and the subsequent Israeli raid on Entebbe Airport, during which he suffers cruel and unusual punishment of the same nature as that endured by Richard Harris in "A Man Called Horse."

In the end, "The Last King of Scotland" is much better when it plays it cool and amusing than when it tries to ramp up outrage and indignation. Among its grace notes is the equivocal portrayal of British interests in the former colony, most prominently repped by an oily, persistent Foreign Service officer (an effective Simon McBurney) who's not as clueless as he seems. The debauchery of Amin's private life is glancingly conveyed by raucous party scenes; at one of them, Amin watches "Deep Throat" and seeks Nicholas' expert advice on the physiological possibility of Linda Lovelace's purported clitoral condition.

Drama moves along speedily, although there's a hasty, unartful look to the picture in general that lacks distinction.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

The Last King Of Scotland


Mike Goodridge in Los Angeles
Screendaily


Dir: Kevin Macdonald. UK. 2006. 121mins.


Kevin Macdonald has proved himself to be an expert documentary film-maker with films like One Day In September and in his last feature Touching The Void he melded documentary and drama into a heart-stopping narrative. Now, in his first dramatic feature, he tells a fictional story against the real-life backdrop of Idi Amin’s barbaric regime in Uganda. As based on the novel by Giles Foden, The Last King Of Scotland is a compelling, well-made film but the fact that it is more fable than real life story will soften its impact with critics and audiences.

Like any historical novel which invents a character at the heart of the political drama, Foden dreamed up Nicholas Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor on a Ugandan medical mission who inadvertently becomes entangled with Amin, is appointed his personal physician and becomes his closest confidante.

The film, which plays at Telluride and Toronto this week, is a curious blend of styles, as reflects Garrigan’s journey. It starts jauntily as the young Scot spreads his wings in Africa and sows his wild oats, swiftly moves into a portrait of Amin the charming dictator and then speeds up into the horror zone of Killing Fields and Hotel Rwanda territory.

Quite how it will perform at the box office is anybody’s guess. The elliptical title will confuse arthouse audiences and reviews, while positive, might not be strong enough to bring them out. It is unlikely to catch fire like Hotel Rwanda, which finally grossed $23.5m in the US, thanks in part to some major Oscar nominations.

Macdonald is certainly skilled as a storyteller and he is helped immeasurably in keeping the different moods of the piece coherent by his lead actor James McAvoy. The 26-year-old Scot, who is also in Penelope and Starter For Ten at Toronto this year, as well as Becoming Jane and Atonement next year, is brash, charismatic and sexy as Garrigan and he has no trouble carrying the film, a blessing for the film-makers since he is in virtually every scene. It’s a breakthrough performance which confirms McAvoy – already on the Hollywood radar after playing Mr Tumnus in The Chronicles Of Narnia – as an actor who possesses the same dynamism of fellow Scot Ewan McGregor....


....The film’s key theme – how easy it is to be unquestioningly complicit in the regime of a persuasive tyrant – is a powerful one, applicable to Idi Amin’s allies as it is to those who consorted with dictators from Hitler and Stalin to Pol Pot. Amin, as played magnificently here by Whitaker, is charm personified, as appealing for his insecurities and fears as he is terrifying for them. For all its awkward blend of fact and fiction, the film’s glimpse into the soul of such a man is perhaps more germane today than it was 30 years ago.

The film was shot in Uganda itself and both design and cinematography are highly successful in evoking the early 1970s period.
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The Last King of Scotland


By Howie Movshovitz

Telluride Film Festival -- Bottom line: An extraordinary piece about naivete caught up in terrible events.


TELLURIDE, Colo. -- Director Kevin MacDonald introduced the Telluride screening of "The Last King of Scotland" by saying, "It's my first feature. Please be gentle."

But there's little need for gentleness. Much of "The Last King of Scotland" is an extraordinary piece about naivete caught up short in terrible events. Boxoffice looks substantial in sophisticated urban venues in North America.

Young Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) is actually beyond naive. He's criminally reckless and unaware of the world he's chosen to enter. When he finishes medical school, he spins the globe in his bedroom to decide where he'll seek his fortune. Garrigan's finger lands on Uganda, and by coincidence, he gets there the very day in 1970 that Idi Amin seized power.

While many white Britishers immediately understand the potential danger to themselves and to Uganda, young Garrigan's first response is to have a quick fling with a black Ugandan woman who shares his seat on the bus. In another rash moment, Garrigan accepts Amin's offer to become his personal physician, which leads Garrigan deep into the morass of the horror Amin unleashes upon his own people.


Macdonald, with cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, has a terrific eye for detail and motion. The early rollicking scenes as Garrigan arrives in Uganda are loaded with color, dancing, fast-moving events and music. Then the color grows ever more somber, while lines and shapes become more regular and ominous as the story continues. Eventually, the film turns into a thriller -- can Garrigan escape both Amin's insanity and his own folly before he too falls to Amin's murderous insanity?

"The Last King of Scotland" has pace and wit; it's brainy and visceral at the same time. Amin (Forest Whitaker) is simultaneously absurd and dangerous, as the wild dictator bests friends and colleagues at swimming by starting before the gun goes off. He arrays himself and his troops in kilts to celebrate some private notion of Scottishness, and a bizarre lingering affection for the European colonial powers.

But the core of the film presents problems. Macdonald, working from a novel by Giles Foden, falls into the trap that claims too many white filmmakers who want to film other kinds of people. The movie tries to bring home the horror of Idi Amin's regime by showing the trials of a white character. All over Uganda, Amin's henchmen are murdering his often-imagined enemies, mostly black people, including Garrigan's friends and lover. But the character whose pain matters most to the movie is Garrigan's. It puts the film out of balance.

You can see the film struggle to resolve this dilemma, but the result is confusion at the end. The thriller side of the movie takes over, while the lively questions about Garrigan's responsibility for his own ignorance fade away. An imaginative and original picture turns conventional as it ends.
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