BAFTA & The Last King of Scotland

I watched the BAFTAS last night. I don't know why but it seemed a little dull this year. Perhaps it was missing the wit and repartee of Mr Stephen Fry who sadly was not hosting this year. Don't get me wrong I am big Jonathon Ross fan, I mean who else could dare to wear a Robin Hood hat with a tangerine coloured suit and be so nonchalant about it, but he just seemed a bit too well behaved and obsequious, which is unlike him.

My film viewing has been sadly lacking in the last year, so I had only actually seen two of the main nominees - The Last King of Scotland and The Queen, both of which were dead certs to win awards anyway so I suppose I didn't have that nervous tension of was my favourite going to win an award. In fact I've never really felt that since the night The Return of the King won all those Oscars, I suppose it would take a lot to beat that amazing moment it won Best Picture.

Back to The Last King of Scotland, Forest Whitaker won Best Actor, deservedly so for his performance as the charismatic yet murderous Idi Amin. However, I'm slightly annoyed that James McAvoy seems to be getting ignored in the majority of the awards and plaudits thrown at the film. Although his performance is not as good as Whitaker's it's certainly not far off it.

Another thing that puzzles me is that Nicholas Garrigan (McAvoy) is in the majority of the movie and the story is about his time in Uganda with Amin, despite the title Amin is in the movie much less, so how come Whitaker is nominated for best actor awards and McAvoy in the case of the BAFTAS, best supporting actor. Very odd, I wonder how they work these things out.

I would recommend seeing The Last King of Scotland, its an interesting, if at times unpalatable story of one man being sucked in by Amin's charm and how he becomes complicit by his inaction in the atrocities going on around him before Amin turns on him. It is gory in a couple of places, but having heard of the killings and tortures carried out under that regime, the film makers could have made it much worse.

Since James McAvoy didn't win Best Supporting Actor I was hoping Michael Sheen would for his performance as Tony Blair in The Queen. I thought he and Helen Mirren were wonderful together in the film, and his performance was certainly as good as hers. Alas it wasn't to be. Although Little Miss Sunshine has been on my Must See list for some times, so I'll reserve opinion on whether Alan Arkin deserved to beat my two actors until I've seen it.