A newly qualified Scottish doctor turns his back on life running a small-town practice with his dad and heads to Uganda where he finds himself the personal doctor to Idi Amin. The doctor (James McAvoy) is seduced by the power then gradually horrified by the brutality of Amin’s regime and seeks a way out, a way out only offered by an irksome British diplomat – if he murders Amin.
It’s a brilliant and engrossing drama and McAvoy proves he’s well worth his elevation to major features.
But it’s Forest Whittaker (always a strong performer in anything from Jean-Claude van Damme movies to the massively under-rated Jim Jarmusch drama Ghost Dog) who steals the show as Amin. His performance is a truly amazing piece of work, the sort of thing that stays with you a long time after the final credits have rolled.
If he doesn’t win the best actor Oscar for this role the Academy has no credibility. Not that it probably has all that much anyway (Tom Hanks a two-times winner for god’s sake!).
Anyway it’s very good.
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