movie minute

Kingdom of Fear: Usually a movie in which one performance is singled out is lackluster and drags when the performer is not on screen; this is not the case with The Last King Of Scotland, the new movie by Touching The Void director Kevin Macdonald. The movie, actually filmed in Uganda, is part fiction but mostly fact and taken from Giles Foden's book of the same name. It is so named because Ugandan President Idi Amin liked all things Scottish (fact part) including his Scottish personal physician who becomes his closest advisor (fiction part). Forest Whitaker plays Amin and gives a tour-de-force performance. Whitaker as Amin exudes confidence and charm. The film opens with Amins ascension to Presidency in the early 1970's as a result of a coup and follows his subsequent paranoia and increasingly volatile behavior. James McAvoy (yes, Mr. Tumnus, the faun from The Chronicles of Narnia) plays the fictional Nicholas Garrigan who moves from Scotland to the second place he touches on his globe (the first place was Canada. Hmmm...another idea for a movie, Canada in the 1970's). Garrigan is a bright-eyed and eager doctor who has recently gotten his degree and shortly after arriving in Uganda is called to fix the President's wrist which has been sprained. Amin is taken with Garrigan and immediately asks him to be his personal physician. Garrigan has an in with Amin and even as those around him begin warning him of Amin and he starts seeing with his own eyes what Amin is capable is, he is still able to be charmed by Amin. Whitaker, of course, never makes this man totally repugnant; he juggles the role with ease and deft. By the time Garrigan realizes just how much trouble he's in (some of the trouble comes from his own actions, it should be noted) it may be too late for him to leave. A personal note of this film: My spouse arrived in Uganda (he had been in Egypt) on the day that President Amin ordered the Asians out of the country. Gillian Anderson, who, sadly, is wasted here, plays the wife of a doctor. Amin reigned until 1979 at which time he was overthrown and following the result of that coup, there was dancing in the streets. By the time all was said and done, Amin had killed more than 300,000 Ugandans. Amin died in exile in Saudi Arabia in 2003. This is a powerful film with a few very graphic scenes but it is a film that could arguably somewhat echo the current American power structure.

Bags of popcorn: 4.25

And always thinking ahead to the Oscars, I'll make some predictions on possible nods for a nom

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker
Best Adapted Screenplaly
Best Supp. Actor: James McAvoy