dvd-review The Last King of Scotland

The Last King of Scotland dvd-review (usa, 2006)

Director: Kevin Macdonald
Writers: Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock (screenplay)

Since this is my third dvd-review for this blog, let me start by saying piracy isn’t a crime. Overpricing movies and boring me with stupid anti-piracy ads is or should be.

That being said, The Last King of Scotland didn’t do much for me. I never was very interested in Uganda or its history. I only heard about Ida Amin because Tom Waits sang about him on a Chuck E. Weiss album. This movie could have gotten me interested in Amin because he was an interesting character, but it didn’t.
I did like the way of filming, witch looks like movies from the 70’s, but neither Forest Whitaker as Ida Amin or James McAvoy as his doctor convinced me to care about their characters, or what happened to them. McAvoy as Amins doctor is not a bad man, but naive and opportunistic. Whitaker can be charming, threatening and paranoid, but not really convincing. Maybe they lost me in the first minute of the story: it starts with a Scottish family drinking alcohol and eating stew. (the only thing missing is Stuart Mackenzie and his Scottish wall of fame). Later on Amin wears a kilt without explanation. Its al just a wee bit to much.

We are supposted to believe in the love affair between the doctor and one of Amin’s wives, after we seen him having sex with somebody he met at random on a bus and his flirting with another doctor’s wife. Not bloody likely I say. (Talking about bloody, there is one torture scene you might want to fast forward. It could really ruin a romantic evening.) I think Whitaker should do some indiefilms or choose more carefully. He did some great flicks, like Smoke or Ghost Dog, but those movies about scientology with Travolta were total crap.