Acting better than film

Giles Foden's novel, "The Last King of Scotland," chronicles the brutal eight-year reign of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada from 1971 to 1979. Kevin MacDonald's film adaptation uses the novel as a template, and features Forest Whitaker in a brave, warts-and-all performance as General Amin. The term "loosely based" might be more appropriate in this case, seeing as how many major differences there are between the novel and the film, and MacDonald makes the seemingly wise decision to let Whitaker run the show. \nAs outstanding as Whitaker's performance is, it comes at a price. The narrative, same as that of the novel, requires the film to hinge on the actions and experiences of Scotsman Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), Amin's personal physician. Instead, it's Amin's every word that we hang on, and even Garrigan's affair and subsequent impregnation of Amin's wife Kay (Kerry Washington) is less dramatic than the beads of sweat on Whitaker's angry brow. Some might call it showboating, but it feels like passion to me. \nRepresenting the rest of the cast and crew are screenwriters Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock, cinematographer Anthony Mantle, and Gillian Anderson and Simon McBurney, all of whom clamor for attention over the bluster of Whitaker's tirades. Brock and Morgan bring the goods for Whitaker to work with, and Mantle does a competent job behind the camera. Anderson, playing an amalgam of three characters from Foden's book, as McBurney as a British diplomat do their worst to no avail. \nDirector Kevin MacDonald provides a decent feature commentary track on this disc, as well as providing commentary on a batch of deleted scenes that were wisely excised from the film. There is also a brief feature on Whitaker's transformation into Amin and a boring bit on casting. The most worthwhile supplement here is an original documentary titled "Capturing Idi Amin," which blueprints the dictator's rise, reign and fall. For my money, though, Barbet Schroeder's 1974 doc "General Idi Amin Dada" is a vastly superior portrait. \nFilm history will remember "The Last King of Scotland" for one thing only -- Forest Whitaker's seething, paranoid take on Idi Amin. Along with the likes of "Ray," "Capote" and Oliver Stone's "Nixon," the actor overshadows the film at an almost detrimental level. Regardless, "Last King" is engaging enough whenever Whitaker is on screen to warrant a viewing from anyone half-interested in the tale being told. Few actors in recent memory have captured madness to the degree Whitaker does here. It's just unfortunate that the rest of the film can't match the pace.