‘Scotland’ flirts with cliche, but Whitaker as king is worth it

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In theaters

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, directed by Kevin Macdonald, written by Peter Morgan and Jeremy Block, 121 minutes, rated R. Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

The new Kevin Macdonald movie, “The Last King of Scotland,” is based on Giles Foden’s novel, which was inspired by true events and certainly took liberties in telling them. The movie follows suit.

Much like the recent Stephen Frears movie, “The Queen,” a good deal of “Scotland” is speculative, especially its dialogue, which for the most part is hooked to one colorful imagination.

The movie mixes entertaining cutaways and asides with the deepening horror you would expect from a story focused on the reign of Gen. Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker), the Ugandan dictator who dazzled a nation with his charm before murdering more than 300,000 people during his eight-year tyrannical rule.

From Peter Morgan and Jeremy Block’s script, the film views Amin through the eyes of its white protagonist, a naive Scottish doctor who never existed. His name is Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) and in 1971, fresh from university, he left his life of wealth and privilege for the drama of Uganda.

There, he allegedly was going to sow his wild oats and find himself while helping the poor and the stricken. That’s a familiar story to tell – some might say it borders on cliche – with Africa once again being used as the go-to place for the white man’s spiritual awakening and salvation. The good news is that Macdonald, his screenwriters and his cast work hard to tell it well.

Early on, by chance, Nicholas finds himself treating Amin, who warms to Nicholas when he learns he’s a Scot and thus likely understands the difficulty of British imperial oppression, as Amin does. Out of this their unlikely relationship is born, with Nicholas becoming so smitten by Amin’s charisma, he’s wooed away from the possibility of a budding affair with Sarah Merrit (Gillian Anderson in a nice career reversal) and moves to the Amin compound to become his personal physician and closest confidant.

Let the sweet life begin, with Nicholas riding a high, comfortable life that gradually dissolves into nightmare as the Amin regime falls apart along with the man himself.

In his Golden Globe-winning performance, Whitaker, who has a lock on an Academy Award nomination and perhaps even the award itself, is the reason to see the movie, which nearly rises to the power of what he achieves here. Assisted by his intimidating bulk, monstrous sneer and bulging right eye, he’s fantastic in the role, initially playing Amin as a genial bear until the dark side of his power and his failure to connect globally begin to consume him with self-doubt, self-destruction and finally a fall into madness.

What Whitaker shows us is a complex portrait of a man whose wide smile and hearty laugh could snap into a murderous rage if provoked. In this respect, he recalls Brando – there is surprise in his step, with a curtain of menace running beneath it. His is one of the fiercest, least predictable performances of 2006, so fully on edge that he becomes the movie’s edge.

Grade: B+

On DVD

This week marks four solid new releases from the BBC, among the best of which is “The Queen’s Sister,” which chronicles the choice dalliances and scandals provided by Princess Margaret (Lucy Cohu), that old cube of sugar who for years whipped the yellow press into a haughty froth.

Initially released in 2000, the film covers Margaret’s affairs, her sexual looseness, her low points and desperation, as well as the ensuing gossip mongering she created over a 20-year period, from the year 1952, when her father died, until the 1970s.

What ensues is a well-acted portrait of a Royal unhinged in the shadow of her sister’s rise to queen – tough to compete with that, and it shows. Cohu depicts Margaret as reckless as she is human, with director Simon Cellan Jones offering a fixed glimpse of a woman who sought her place in a family that had little use for her, which just happened to spark a rather revealing rebellion.

Faring just as well is the first season of “The Royle Family,” which is a trace different from the Royals into which Margaret was born. These Royles are another kind of wreck, hard-core chain-smokers and couch potatoes who observe life – bleak and funny as it is here – while watching television. Perhaps better than anyone else, the British know how to kneecap class – they dig in hard for a day’s worth of skewering. As such, the cheap slumming and barbed dialogue the show courts is something of a comedic oasis.

“Doctor Who: Complete Second Series,” from the 1989 television season, also is available. Crammed with extras, this six-disc set features David Tennant replacing Christopher Eccleston as the series’ 10th doctor. As the show itself recognizes, he literally is the new face of the series, which continues to plum much weirdness in a universe fraught with danger. Of the 15 included episodes, “The Christmas Invasion,” “Rise of the Cybermen” and “The Girl in the Fireplace” are the standouts.

Wrapping up a busy BBC week is the first season of “My Hero,” a clever Britcom that follows the tumultuous life of George Sunday (Ardal O’Hanlon), who leads a double life as a clueless health food store owner and, on the sly, as the superhero Thermoman from the planet Ultron. Along with his wife, Janet (Emily Joyce), these two must dodge their share of bullets, most of which stem from the monumental difficulty George has existing in a human world. When he’s not saving the world, his life on Earth is a blunder, but endearingly so, with this moderately funny show following suit.

“Queen’s Sister,” B+; “Royle,” B+; “Doctor Who,” A-; “Hero,” B

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and weekends in Television as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? BDN film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Akeelah and the Bee – B+

Annapolis – C-

The Ant Bully – B+

Basic Instinct 2 – D+

Big Momma’s House 2 – D

The Black Dahlia – C-

Breakfast on Pluto – B

The Break-Up – B

Brokeback Mountain: HD DVD – A-

Cars – C

Casanova – C-

Cheaper by the Dozen 2 – C-

Chicago: Blu-ray – A

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – A

Clerks II – B+

Click – C-

The Constant Gardener – A-

The Covenant – D

Crank – B+

Curious George – B

Date Movie – D-

The Da Vinci Code – C+

The Descent – B+

The Devil Wears Prada – B+

Doctor Who: Complete Second Series – A-

Double Indemnity – A

Employee of the Month – C

Failure to Launch – C-

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift – B

Freedomland – C-

Friends with Money – B

Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties – C+

The Gridiron Gang – C+

A History of Violence – A

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Blu-ray – B-

How Art Made the World – A

The Illusionist – B+

Inside Man – B+

Invincible – B

Jackass Number Two – B

Junebug – A

Kinky Boots – B+

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – B+

Last Holiday – B

The Libertine – D

Little Miss Sunshine – B+

Lucky Number Slevin – B

Match Point – A

Men of Honor: Blu-ray – C-

Miami Vice – C

Mission Impossible III – C-

Monster House – B+

Munich – A-

My Hero: Series One – B

My Super Ex-Girlfriend – A-

Nacho Libre – C

North Country – C

The Omen – B-

Over the Hedge – B

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – B-

Poseidon – B

A Prairie Home Companion – C

The Queen’s Sister – B+

The Royle Family: Season One – B+

Rumor Has It… – C-

Saw III: Blu-ray – F

Shakespeare Behind Bars – A-

16 Blocks – B

Slither – B

Snakes On A Plane: A-

Stay Alive – D-

Superman Returns – C+

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby – B

United 93 – A

V for Vendetta – B+

The Wicker Man – BOMB

World Trade Center – A

X-Men: The Last Stand – B-

You, Me and Dupree – C-