Forest Whitaker plays Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator whose reign of paranoia and murder haunted the country for most of the 1970s, yet The Last King of Scotland isn’t exactly a biopic. Based on Giles Foden’s novel, the movie depicts Amin through the fictional eyes of a Scottish doctor (James McAvoy) who travels to Africa for humanitarian reasons but winds up serving at the dictator’s side. The Last King of Scotland places history within a familiar narrative framework – the tragic arc of things falling apart – but Whitaker is so magnetic that you’re mesmerized anyway. His sleepy eyes hinting at buried malevolence, his significant girth simultaneously a symbol of indolence and raw power, Whitaker’s Amin will make you flinch in your seat each time he appears.
