After My Second Viewing Of The Last King of Scotland

[ER]

It frustrates me as much now as it did last year. Am I alone in thinking this film missed a good chance to be a great movie? Forest Whitaker was magnificent, James McAvoy was easy on the eyes as always, and it was good to see our old friend Gillian Anderson again. The first hour of the movie was engrossing, the rest of its run time a disaster, and I don't mean the one caused by Idi Amin. I ended up mildly ticked off by The Last King of Scotland, because I think it got ruined when it started so well and had so much talent in it. It had too much sheer invention, too little history (and something as horrific as Amin's reign needs no imaginative touch-up to make it seem worse) and by its conclusion careened so badly out of control it was a chore to sit through. I don't know who to blame for this film crashing and burning but I do know it wasn't the cast's fault, as good performances abound here. But someone somewhere destroyed what was almost one of the best films of the Tens.