'The Last King of Scotland'

The latest film about the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin does not disappoint. Forest Whitaker's swivel-eyed enactment of the paranoid leader is magnificent, while James McAvoy also shines as the brave young doctor (Nicholas Garrigan) who becomes his personal physician. The movie focuses on Amin's personal magnetism and it is a while before his murderous tendencies begin to dawn on Garrigan. As a proud Scot, the doctor clearly sympathises with Amin, who put one over the British army (who trained him) when he became the leader of an independent Uganda. Garrigan's desire to escape from a puritanical and traditional family practice also helps to explain his initial credulity. The final scales fall from his eyes after seeing the results of a particularly nasty detruncation.