FILM: All hail the last king of Scotland, or at least the man who plays him

It's the 1970s and Nicholas Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor, is lying on his bed contemplating his future. He goes through a sort of crisis that I suppose many recent graduates face. His lasts about 30 seconds and is resolved by a globe. "Where ever it lands, I go," he said (or something like that). It lands on Canada. Naturally, he spins again. It lands on Uganda.

This is how The Last King of Scotland begins. Before we know it, Nicholas, played by James McAvoy, ends up in Ugandan countryside. It's new, it's different, he sleeps with Ugandan women, he makes out with the wife of a fellow doctor--he's loving it. Nicholas then meets Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker), the nation's new president at the time, who takes Nicholas under his wing, so to speak. Nicholas ends up taking a position as Amin's personal physician and advisor.

Nicholas realizes a little too late that Amin is committing criminal and atrocious acts in the country, killing thousands of innocent people. As expected, there are a few graphic scenes in this movie, but really not as much as there could be. What is portrayed more is Amin's character, particularly his completely strange, hilarious, eccentric, bipolar-like, tendencies. Whitaker, who deservingly won a Best Actor Oscar for this role, is amazing and completely entertaining.

By the end of the movie, viewers are left with an impression of Idi Amin and a pretty amazing story about a Scotsman who got wrapped up in a completely horrifying situation just because he was bored and his globe landed on Uganda. Unfortunately the latter is fictional and the former is questionable. Apparently, there was no Nicholas Garrigan in real life and one of Idi Amin's 50 children (exact number unknown but something like that) claims his father was nothing like the movie's portrayal of him. I guess we'll never know, but I think it's safe to say that Whitaker's performance has made it hard for viewers to imagine Amin any other way.

Whether you know anything about Uganda in the 1970s or you don't, whether you give damn or you don't, watch this movie. It'll open your eyes to sectarian violence and good acting.