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With "The Last King of Scotland," Kevin MacDonald has created a bracing, exciting and totally satisfying thriller.

Forest Whitaker gives a titanic performance as Idi Amin, Ugandan dictator who rose to power in the 1970s. James McAvoy plays Nicholas Garrigan, a Scottish physician who travels to Uganda for the adventure and wins Amin's affections, becoming his personal doctor. Garrigan enters into a moral crisis as he begins to realize the kind of man Amin is, and begins to fear for his own life as events spiral more and more out of his control.

Whitaker seizes the chance to play this larger than life character and runs with it -- I've never seen Whitaker give so convincing and transforming a performance. However, as good as he is, McAvoy impressed me more. His performance as Garrigan is not as showy, but it's much more textured and subtle, and his character has the bigger arc from start to finish. Gillian Anderson also does terrific work in a small role as a fellow doctor, who understands things about Amin and the African culture that Garrigan does not.

Unlike other recent thrillers set in African nations ("The Constant Gardener," "Hotel Rwanda"), "The Last King of Scotland" is not greatly concerned with the geo-political implications of Amin's reign. The atrocities he committed against Ugandans are given only the barest of mentions, and the film sticks almost exclusively to Garrigan and the danger he himself faces. Some may think the film is irresponsible for this reason -- that the plight of one man pales in comparison to the plight of thousands, and I can see where a criticism like that is justified. But the movie packs a powerful wallop regardless, and complaints like this seem like quibbles when up against such an entertaining movie.

Grade: A

Forest Whitaker's ferociously charismatic turn as Idi Amin so dominates this intense historical fiction that it is honestly difficult to pay attention to anything else in this 2006 political thriller. Even though he is definitively the emotional locus, he is intriguingly not the protagonist of the story. That role belongs to young James McAvoy, who plays Nicholas Garrigan, a precocious Scottish doctor who ventures to Uganda to satisfy his need for adventure after graduating medical school. By happenstance, Garrigan is called upon to help Amin with a minor sprain after his private car plows into a cow. Impressed by the young man's lack of hesitancy to take action, Amin appoints Garrigan to be his personal physician, a post that seduces the impressed doctor into the Ugandan dictator's political inner circle and extravagant lifestyle.

Scottish director Kevin MacDonald brings his extensive documentary film-making skills to the fore here, as he creates a most realistic-feeling atmosphere in capturing the oppressive Uganda of the 1970's. Helping considerably with this image are the vibrant color contrasts in Anthony Dod Mantle's cinematography and the propulsive action induced by Justine Wright's sharp editing. Screenwriters Peter Morgan (who also wrote "The Queen") and Jeremy Brock have developed a sharply delineated character study of Amin, who evolves from a magnetic leader giving hope to his people to a scarifying tyrant conducting murders on an imaginable scale (at least until the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur). It is impossible to over-praise Whitaker's towering performance here. He conveys the dictator's playfulness as well as his unmitigated rage moving from simmering to full boil with a power that is at once bravura and subtle. His relationship with the fictionalized Garrigan turns out to be the plot's essential pivot point, although the contrast between the two can be almost too extreme at times.

While McAvoy admirably captures the boyish naiveté of Garrigan, the character is drawn out in rather broad strokes that make his self-delusion all the more contrived as the story progresses. To intensify the political upheaval portrayed, the plot takes a melodramatic turn into an adulterous affair and even folds in the infamous 1976 Entebbe hijacking incident to illustrate Garrigan's increasingly precarious situation. It's all exciting and even downright brutalizing toward the end, but it also starts to feel a bit too Hollywood in execution. Kerry Washington shows genuine versatility as Amin's cloistered third wife Kay, while Simon McBurney oozes cynical suspicion with ease as a British operative. A convincingly Brit-accented Gillian Anderson makes her few scenes count as a weary clinic worker who proves to have better instincts than Garrigan. But see the movie for Whitaker's magnificent work. He is that good.

Gripping, brutal and powerful, 'The Last King of Scotland' is a brilliant dramatic depiction of the life of megalomaniac Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, perfectly portrayed by Forest Whitaker in his Oscar-winning performance as one of the greatest casting against type roles seen in film. His Amin is capricious and unpredictable, a personality that can seem volcanic one moment and vulnerable a few minutes later. A blunt and brutal tale, and one that is highly engaging from start to finish. A taut political thriller about power and corruption. Macdonald's riveting and incandescent direction caps this fictionalised drama, a truly stunning flick that remains as a highlight of film in 2006.

Greetings again from the darkness. A true tour de force by Forest Whitaker ... the best performance of the year so far! Somehow Mr. Whitaker captures the madness and charm of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Amin was one of the first political rock stars. He used the media to his advantage as his regime slaughtered hundreds of thousands of his countrymen.

Also impressive is James McAvoy ("Chronicles of Narnia") who plays the dramatized Nicholas Garrigan, a young doctor who sets out on an adventure to make a difference in a small country and ends up counseling one of the most powerful madmen in history. Scottish documentarian Kevin Macdonald directs the film with only a few lapses in directness, which serve this biopic very well. Watching Amin and the young doctor immerse themselves in the shower of power is both frightening and sickening. Macdonald captures this spirit very well thanks mostly to his willingness to let his two leads do their thing.

As Amin laughs and tells Garrigan that "You are my closest adviser", I couldn't help but compare to Kathy Bates telling James Caan (in "Misery") that "I'm your number one fan". The evil and insanity is simply chilling. Whitaker is just amazing as he flips the switch from media darling to cold blooded, ruthless murderer ... and then back again. Just a terrific performance and well worth the price of admission - maybe a couple of times! Good for a laugh is the most unique version of Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee" that you have ever heard ... guaranteed! See this one for a bit of history and the site of a real monster, but also for one of the best film performances ever.

It is important to learn and understand history. This is evident, not only, with good history, but with bad history as well. Even though you really shouldn't rely on a movie for historical accuracy, at least a film reminds you about that moment, hopefully prompting you to look into it more. This is the story about the Ugandan President, Idi Amin, who rose to power in the 1970s. Idi Amin, became President of Uganda on January 25th, 1971. He is played brilliantly by Forest Whitaker. James McAvoy is cast a fictional character that becomes Amin's private physician. This film is based on a 1998 novel, by the same name, written by Giles Foden. McAvoy's character was based on real associates of Amin, but was fictionalized to further the impact of this story as a biopic film. Foden used information from different associates, research and a combination of fiction and true history. This is a normal story-telling device in film, that is seen in many film biopics.

McAvoy (Dr. Nicholas Garrigan), is a ladies man, who just graduated from medical school and for some odd reason he picks Uganda as the place where he wants to start his practice. One day, he is summoned to help Amin after a car accident. Amin immediately takes a liking to Nicholas and asks him to be his private physician and advisor. What Nicholas doesn't foresee is a future where Amin goes nuts. If you look back in history, Amin, amid all the media and chaos, was depicted as a madman. Forest Whitaker explores this scenario quite well. He shows you a lighter side of Amin, but also has the great acting skills to show you Amin's dark paranoid side. Once the film really takes off, you begin to understand how weird Amin really was. It reminds you, that it was a good thing his reign came to an end.

I also want to bring in a comparison. If you have seen Seth Rogan and James Franco's, The Interview (2014), before you have seen Last King of Scotland (2006), or vice-verse, enjoy this comparison, because it only enhances the excellent work, that McAvoy and Whitaker did in this film. In The Interview (2014), James Franco's character becomes best-buddies with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. Of course, all of this is fictional, as well as, a comedy. It has the ridiculous scenario of these two guys being good buddies, either through ignorance or craziness. Well, as you watch Franco and Randall Park (President Kim), interact in their film, think of McAvoy and Whitaker in this film, a serious film, but the results are almost, dead-on, the same. It further enhances the craziness and paranoia of Amin's character and shows, either through ignorance, stupidity or just bad luck that Dr. Nicholas got involved with this nut in the first place. None of this is more evident than at the very end, during the end credits, when director Kevin Macdonald, decides to flash up real footage of Idi Amin. He shows us the real Idi Amin's eyes and face, which solidifies the truth about how really nuts this guy was. It's all in the eyes. You need to see this film.

8.1 (B MyGrade) = 8 IMDB.