Kevin Macdonald - an Oscar-winner for his documentary One Day in September and director of the highly acclaimed Touching the Void - shows with his new film that he has the magic touch when it comes to big screen drama as well. A riotous tale of excess and greed in the comparative backwaters of Uganda in the 1970s, The Last King of Scotland professes to be inspired by actual events, and features two of the year's most compelling performances.
Forest Whitaker gives a barnstorming turn as Idi Amin, President of Uganda from 1970-79 and self-proclaimed Conqueror of the British Empire. During Amin's reign of terror, over 300,000 of his countrymen were put to death and when he befriends a young Scottish doctor working in a charity camp (James McAvoy) he is charm personified, soon whisking the medic off to his palace to become his personal doctor.
McAvoy's Dr Garrigan is in the country on a whim: desperate to escape his dreary puritanical past, and on a mission to help the needy in Uganda's poorest regions. When he is called to a road traffic accident, he discovers that his patient is none other than the new President. Amin likes both his medical and sartorial style: when he discovers the good doctor is Scottish the two become firm friends. Inevitably, Amin also professed strong links with the country despite having never been there.
Despite having to attend to Amin's every need, Garrigan is soon leading the high life, with a flash car, flashier women and a beautiful apartment. He even represents the President in high level meetings. Inevitably, the dream turns sour: when Garrigan begins to learn that his new best friend is nothing short of a vicious tyrant he tries, but fails to escape.
The film is full of great performances, not least by the two leads. Whitaker is outstanding as the archetypal dictator: full of generosity but able to turn into a vicious monster in a second. As his foil, McAvoy shows that the hype currently surrounding him is actually worth it: the spunky Scot on the lookout for a good time but who gets caught up in a nightmare he can't wake up from. The two are given able support from Simon McBurney as a sleazy Foreign Office official and Gillian Anderson as the alluring doctor that Garrigan meets in his initial posting.
Anthony Dod Mantle's cinematography frequently gives the film a docu-feel, and the location shooting in Uganda adds to the reality of the final product. Nevertheless, the fact that there are three credited screenwriters is underlined by a less even second hour, which tests the credulity of the strongest believer. However, for the large majority of its running time, this is hugely enjoyable stuff.
