by MARK SLUTSKY

Idi Amin isn’t the protagonist, strictly speaking, in The Last King of Scotland, but he might as well be. Everything that happens proceeds directly from him, and, more importantly, Forest Whitaker’s performance as the Ugandan dictator overshadows everything and everyone else in the movie. Whitaker, who’s always great, elevates a so-so film into essential watching on the basis of his acting alone.

Directed by Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void) and based on the novel by Giles Foden, Last King is set in the Uganda of the early 1970s, immediately following the Amin-led military coup that deposed Prime Minister Milton Obote. James McAvoy stars as Nicholas Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor who, not content with his life at home, heads to Africa for adventure and to perhaps do a bit of good.

A bizarre chance encounter with Amin (the presidential car hits a bull and he injures his hand) leads to a strange friendship forming between the two, and before long the initially reluctant McAvoy is hired as Amin’s personal physician. Giddy and heedless at first, drawn in by the man’s intense charm, the young doctor enjoys his privileged existence but gradually begins to see beyond the fantasy life of a dictator’s inner circle—especially when the bodies start to pile up (Amin was responsible for the deaths of something like 300,000 people during his rule).

For its first half or so, the movie is spellbinding. Shot on location in Uganda, with deep, saturated colours and grainy photography, the film evoked the Africa of the ’70s—the music, the clothes, the amazing modernist architecture. And Whitaker is just so charismatic. He completely disappears into the role and sells it—you can see how the real Amin might have been such a huge presence.

But the movie doesn’t really have anywhere to go from there. Let’s face it, this is another film—like this year’s Shooting Dogs—where a well-intentioned European goes to Africa to witness atrocities for us and ultimately finds redemption in all the black people he sees die. Aren’t we over this? Can we start having more movies about Africa that are about, you know, real Africans and not made-up composite white people? At this point, anything else seems like a cop-out.

The Last King of Scotland opens this Friday, Oct. 13

>> Movie Listings