The young doctor thinks he's in Africa for all the right reasons, but we can tell early on that he's not. So can his powerful benefactor, an insecure, homicidal dictator who goes by the name of Idi Amin.
The doctor isn't real; The Last King of Scotland is one of those fictional stories based on an infamous historical figure (like Max, the 2002 portrait of Hitler as a young artist). But it's also a shrewd commentary on misguided Western excursions into the "dark continent."
And come awards season, it will be the movie that makes Forest Whitaker a solid bet to take home his first Oscar.
Mr. Whitaker plays the infamous Ugandan ruler as a moody, wound-up child with a talent for making those around him feel special, until he decides it's time for them to die. He bounds about his palace like a 280-pound ballerina, proclaiming his oneness with an impoverished populace and throwing swanky affairs for moneyed dignitaries.