Aside from ‘The Last King of Scotland’ the only other Kevin Macdonald film I’ve seen is ‘Touching The Void’, an entertaining, and at times hilarious, film about a pretty horrific subject, namely a climbing disaster and the life and death consequences of it. In many ways ‘The Last King Of Scotland’ is similar. The bloody regime of dictator Idi Amin is hardly a cheery subject, and yet Macdonald has created another really enjoyable piece of cinema from horrifying source material.

Based on Giles Foden’s book of the same name, ‘The Last King of Scotland’ tells the story of Idi Amin's brutal dictatorship over Uganda in the 1970's as seen through the eyes of fictionalised Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan. Both Forrest Whitaker (Amin) and James McAvoy (Garrigan) turn in strong performances, with the former playing the schizophrenic dictator to spine chilling T. One minute the charismatic and cheerful gentle giant, the next the paranoid, cold-blooded psychopath.

Although this has generated some criticism, for me one of the most interesting things about ‘Last King of Scotland’ is that for most of the film the horrors of Amin’s dictatorship are only really alluded to (Amin is believed to be responsible for the massacre of over 300,000 people during his regime), with the plot predominantly concentrating on his relationships with those around him. This not only goes some way to explaining how someone as clearly evil as Amin managed to use his personality and charisma to win the people of Uganda over, but also provides the calm before the storm for when the penny finally drops for Garrigan and he finds out exactly what Amin has been up to.

The final third of the film is pretty mental as Amin properly loses the plot and Garrigan’s world falls apart around him. It does go a bit over the top, but not enough to take the shine off what I thought was an entertaining, good-looking and thought provoking film.

I’ll certainly never look at a fishhook in the same light ever again. Recommended.