In Continuum.

The Last King of Scotland was one of those movies that slipped off the radar for me because I was too busy checking out other movies that were nominated for the Oscars last year. It just slipped by my timetable last year and I really didn't have the time to watch it, and it's not like anybody heard of it back then anyway. Everybody was raving about Forest Whitaker's performance in this movie on one hand and Helen Mirren's performance in The Queen on the other. So I checked out the latter without watching this one, and one of the finest performance by an actor was sorely missed due to conflicting schedules. Anyway, so my sister hasn't been home to entertain my mother with her nonsense - I meant that in a good way - these days because she is on her graduation trip. So my mother and I planned to have movie marathons for the next couple of days, just sit at home and watch rented DVDs, one every night until she returns. We've watched The Fountain, Atonement, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly so far, and we just watched this movie after dinner today. It wasn't actually on the list of movies I wanted her to watch, but since No Country for Old Men and Lars and the Real Girl didn't have chinese subtitles when I rented them, I had to pick something that neither of us has watched before.

The Last King of Scotland begins with Nicholas Garrigan graduating from medical school, and he wants to achieve something in his life with his skills as a doctor. So he decided to head down to Uganda to help out with the locals, but mostly to experience the world and have fun anyway. Just as he was settling into his new working environment, his path crossed with the new president of Uganda, Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker), who took him in as his personal physician after Nicholas successfully treated his sprained wrist. Charmed by his charisma initially, Nicholas gladly took the job as the president's physician, and he gradually became his personal advisor and confidante as well. However, as the oppositions in the country started to revolt against the military government, Nicholas realized that the man that he grew to respect as a father figure really was a tyrant and a mass murderer. 

Based on the true story of Idi Amin after his military coup in Uganda, the film is actually an adaptation from a novel with the same name. Most of the events that occur in the film were actual events, but certain characters were fictional or altered for the sake of the story. Dr. Nicholas Garrigan never actually existed, but it was still interesting to see the life of this mad tyrant from the inside, and how Nicholas' wrong decisions led to even more wrong decisions being made. The Last King of Scotland was probably 2007's Hotel Rwanda because of how both of them brought attention to situations in Africa that the rest of the world have so easily overlooked. This time, however, it is about the man responsible for the death of 300,000 people in his own country, and also the man that fed his people to the crocodiles because there weren't enough time to dig graves for those people. 

With that said, the film does take its time to tell the story in full. Initially, we are as innocent as Nicholas when it comes to our perspective of Amin. We see him as a charismatic leader, a promising one who swore to the development of Uganda and stuff like that. Anybody would have fell for his spell instantaneously, but then you only sink deeper as you get to know the man behind the curtain. Like Hotel Rwanda, this film did not use gruesome scenes to tell the horrors in Uganda, although there were a few graphic scenes that flashed on the screen for a few split seconds - it's definitely not a shot, however, you'd want to pause at, let me assure you. The horrors of the genocide in Uganda can be seen through the eyes of Amin, not because he was a victim but because that is where they originated from. Amin's charisma and charm quickly turned into carnage and revenge as more and more oppositions attempted to assassinate him. His ruthlessness, his mercilessness, and his paranoia begins to surface, and Nicholas is caught in the middle of this whole mess unwillingly. 

Director Kevin Macdonald very wisely presented Nicholas to be a character that isn't very easy to like. I mean, he's the type of teenager too proud and too naive at the same time to know the realities of the world. Being a graduate from a medical school and coming from a rich family, it is easy to slip into that state especially when you have been sheltered for so long. Initially, you kind of resent his character, but then Amin's shadow over Nicholas definitely overshadows all his little sins. Forest Whitaker is petrifying as Idi Amin, and he is probably one of the scariest on screen villains ever presented. You fear him even when he is smiling at you, and you cannot help but see this demon stirring inside his head. I cannot imagine being around somebody like that, and Forest Whitaker did such a fine job in this film that you cannot help but worship his ability to transform out of his usual self in real life. That's the same character in Panic Room that chickened out on robbing the house, imagine that.

James McAvoy's character, as mentioned, isn't very likable. I have grown to like him as an actor, especially after his performance in Atonement. Interestingly, this film just feels somewhat like a prequel to Atonement in the sense that we have James McAvoy's character committing all these sins, and then we have the movie "Atonement" that skyrocketed him to worldwide fame. Anyway, as good as his performance was, nobody could beat Forest Whitaker. I'm not sure where he got that rage and anger from, but it sure scared the living daylight out of me when he stared into Nicholas' eyes just before he ordered him to be hung onto hooks by his skin - yeah, you read that right. I won't spoil anything here, but let's just say you'd want to look away if you are a fan of James McAvoy, it's not a pretty scene.

Despite the slow narrative towards the beginning of the film, the director managed to carry the movie all the way through with Whitaker's performance as well as a quick-moving story line. I haven't been so tensed up about a climax for a movie for a very long time, and you would too during the scene at the airport. I thought the editing was perfect, although the pacing was a little awkward at times throughout the movie. Anyway, a line in the film really hit it home for me, when a doctor said "Go back home and tell the world what happened here. They will believe you, because you are a white man", or something like that. It is true how the world sometimes neglect the continent and what is happening there because, well, the continent has little to offer to the rest of the world. It's all about the oil, and the money, and people would do anything to gain a share of them even if it means that you'd have to throw people into the rivers to feed crocodiles. More than just a frightful autobiography of Idi Amin in a way, this is a cautionary tale of what would happen when power overwhelms someone in the midst of chaos. Bloodshed ensues, and the worst part is when the world turns away completely. 

8.5/10