Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with Grendy's look at the James McAvoy (creepy kid-touching fawn from that NARNIA movie) and Forest Whitaker political period flick. Enjoy!!!
I saw the new Forest Whitaker film, The Last King of Scotland, laat night and it was a great piece of filmmaking. Taking on the subject of Idi Amin and trying to present him in any sort of humanizing way was going to be a challenge from the outset. It takes one hell of an actor to put a face on someone who was such a monster and so in love with his own power that you still sort of like him after all he does. It's a performance very similar to the one Ralph Fiennes gave us in Schindler's List as Amon Goeth. You hated him, for what he represented and did, and yet the interaction with Goeth and Helen Hirsch was compelling and hard to turn away from. This how I felt about Scotland. James McAvoy and Whitaker are no less riveting to watch together. In the beginning we see a young man (Dr. Nicholas Garrigan) graduating from medical school in Scotland and running off the docks to jump half-dressed into a loch in joy and youthful exuberance. Next is a dinner with the conservative parents that is filled with faint praise from his overly successful father and silent assent from his nebbishy mother. He decides to run away, as it were, to somewhere exiting and do his work there. When the first spun-globe-stopping-finger choice is Canada he quickly re-spins and lands on Uganda. Uganda. It's about as damn far away from Scotland as you can get and the good doctor, Nick arrives much sweaty bus riding hours later. He starts out at a medical missionary hospital and village with just one other doctor and his wife, played by Gillian Anderson. She was thin as a rail and had long blonde hair for this and I swear I think her cheekbones could cut you if she looked at you too fast. There quickly ignites a spark of interest/lust between the young Nick and Sarah Merrit that's never realized. Sarah and Nick decide to go and see the new president when he comes to visit while her husband's away. As General Amin has recently staged a coup over the former Ugandan president he is coming to the small village on basically a P.R. tour. Bringing native-style dancers with him and drummers and people to praise the good general's works, Amin stands before hundreds of adoring villagers as if to the manor born. On the way home after the rally, Nick and Sarah are pulled over by some soldiers and told the president is injured and needs help right away. Amin and Garrigan meet and over a cow, somehow form a friendship that will change the course of both their lives. When Nick is asked to become the president's personal physician Nick leaves Sarah and the what-might-have-been romance behind and heads to the capital city of Kampala. It's not long before he sees through a window what becomes of someone who still supports the former president when he sees a man chased down the street and thrown into a trunk, neat as you please. One of the reasons this film is titled as it is was because Amin had a love of all things Scottish. He even named some of his children Mackenzie and Campbell to show the world his affinity. There is a scene with him sitting on this throne-like chair in full kilt under African skies (sorry, Paul Simon) while a chorus of proud singers belts forth with a Highland ballad with Ugandan accents. It was a little jarring and funny. It's also a good example of the dichotomy of such a man as Amin. He was immature and like a child whenever he didn't get what he wanted, but was magnanimous with those in his inner circle. You can see James McAvoy's boyish charms in full force here as Nick learns to navigate the political and social landscape so far removed from Scotland. Nick came to Africa for adventure and to be the white hero, and though he doesn't outright admit such, at one point in an argument Amin shouts it at him and he can't deny it. The dynamic between Whitaker and McAvoy is full of such give and take it's almost like they're an old married couple. When Amin wants something from Nick he plays the trump card of; "You're my closest advisor." and then can turn on him on a dime when his 'advisor' doesn't say exactly what he wants to hear. Yet, Amin holds him in such esteem that he sends him to high level meetings in his stead when he's out of the country, trusting Nick to do what Amin wants. For …"the people" of course. It's a subtle trap that honestly doesn't seem to be set on purpose at first. But the years go on, and people protest the administration more and more, and Nick really starts to see what a horrible moral quandary he's gotten himself into. The choices he makes, both for his own advancement and to retain his good standing with the General are read across McAvoy's eyes as if printed there. There are times when lives truly hang in the balance and there is no cynicism in Nick when he realizes what he's done, or not done to change things in this oppressive country. Simon McBurny is great as Nigel Stone, from the British Foreign Office. He's basically a spy for England who has a lot of business connections. Not like a CIA-kill-'em-all spy, but more like a reserved and racist tea-drinking-hates-africa-and-africans businessman, kind of spy. His initial meeting with Garrigan sets the tone of their relationship and when Garrigan finally needs him and what he can get for him, the shoe's on the other foot. Kerry Washington, last seen in the god-awful Fantastic Four movie does a nice turn here as well playing Kay Amin, Idi's 3rd wife. She and Nick form a dangerous friendship, and it's one of the precipitating factors in Amin's reputation in the world stage going bad. I am divided by how the story resolves. I don't truly know if the doctor deserves the ending he gets. Can one life saved balance one taken? It's not a place I would want to be in. I know it's a Jewish saying that to save one life, you save the whole world, but what if you're responsible for losing someone else's life? Have you lost the right to be 'in' the world? It shows at the film's end that Amin was responsible for murdering over 300,000 of his own people. Nick Garrigan ran away to the wide world outside his small home and was taken in by a murderer who became his friend. This is a fascinating piece of filmmaking, from its indie-documentary shooting style, to the blending of 70's music, African spirituals and a soaring score that underlines the relationships of all involved, to the outstanding performances given by both McAvoy and Whitaker. I know Whitaker will be garnering all the praise for this and it is certainly well deserved, but I don't want McAvoy to be overlooked. Nick is this film's moral center and weight. His open face and gradual realization of what he's gotten into, and let himself become is a performance worth your time. ~Grendy
