The Last King of Scotland
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Year: 2006
Stars: James McAvoy, Forest Whittaker
I'd wanted to see this for a while, and only heard good things about it - from friends and reviews alike. Unfortunately, it did mean watching another not-all-together happy film when recovering from a pretty nasty hangover (self inflicted, yes - but why are the romantic comedies never on on days like this?).
The plot follows Nicholas Garrigan, a Scot who has just qualified as a doctor and can't face working in his father's surgery for the rest of his life. Instead, he decides to go to Uganda and work as a doctor there. The film begins quite happily, and only gets more brutal as Nicholas comes to slowly understand how brutal the Ugandan regime is, and what he's doing by being Idi Amin's (the Ugandan presidents) "closest advisor" (and doctor).
It's a clever device, and makes the film work on a number of levels. Towards the end the film gets pretty violent and hard to watch, but it is excellently done and will leave you thinking about it for some time afterwards. Not an easy watch, but a worthwhile one.
Rating: 4 out of 5
About Me
- Anna Lawson
- I live in Bristol with my husband Dan (who I married in July 2007), my son Joe (born 2012) and daughter Jess (born 2015). I work at UWE (the University of the West of England) in Bristol as a Research and Open Access Librarian. I'm orginally from Exeter, so moving back to Bristol is a bit like coming home - especially as I studied for my undergraduate degree here (also at UWE). I love travelling and movies, although I get to do a lot less of both since the birth of our children. Although we have still managed to fit in holidays to the Isles of Scilly, Chamonix and a summer in California since Joe was born.
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