Last King Of Scotland

Year: 2006

Grade: B-

Country: UK

Director: MacDonald

Review

there’s one element of this film that truly sticks out, and it’s not whitaker’s performance. to me, it was the music. whitaker’s performance is good and the film is enjoyable enough, but the music was the element that excited me the most. the first half of the film was very good and well-paced. we’re introduced to all the characters and they are allowed to breathe and flourish with the right amount of space. the second half of the film turns towards the thriller genre and away from a character-based film. amin dada becomes the bad guy and our protagonist goes on the run. it’s somewhat like watching “training day” for the first time. unlike my first viewing of “training day,” though, it wasn’t the character shift that turned me off. after all, i knew where amin’s character would end up so i wasn’t surprised by his turn towards pure villainy. rather, i was turned off by the shift of the film’s approach – from the human story of the protagonist, general idi amin dada, and the doctors to the cliché story of adultery and being on the run.

Watched in theater