Why Forest Whitaker will win

This is a short article I wrote for Buzz Weekly on why I think Forest Whitaker is a shoe-in for the Best Actor Oscar. It's a little more formal than most of what I write for BTS but check it out anyway:

As the final and most anticipated awards show of the season, the Academy Awards ceremony has a knack for surprising audiences. Last year’s frontrunner for Best Picture, Brokeback Mountain, was upset by the better controversial drama, Crash. This year’s ceremony has no apparent frontrunner in the Best Picture category, but the prize for Best Actor is all but set to go to Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland.

Whitaker plays Idi Amin, the larger-than-life former dictator of Uganda. Amin was a dually charismatic and terrifying man, and Whitaker plays the character as such. He makes sure none of his scenes are wasted and that the fear Amin evoked in Ugandans during his reign of terror is palpable throughout.

Whitaker plays Amin as both ruthless and terrifying, but also jovial and reflective. Amin is plain evil in some scenes, yet in others, Whitaker hints that there may just be a method to his madness. Consider a scene in which Amin talks of his affinity for the Scottish culture; Whitaker is brilliant in the way he conveys Amin’s humor, obsessive tendencies and possible lunacy all at once.

The dark horse in the Best Actor category is veteran actor Peter O’Toole for his role in Venus. Having never won an Oscar (not even for Lawrence of Arabia), he is the emotional favorite. Leonardo DiCaprio’s work in Blood Diamond was exceptional, but he was better in The Aviator and still has a long career ahead of him. Ryan Gosling’s nomination for Half Nelson, as well as Will Smith’s for The Pursuit of Happyness, are rewards in themselves.

It would have been easy for Whitaker to play a cartoon version of Idi Amin, but he infuses his performance with enough nuances to suggest a deeper humanity, however warped. This is Whitaker’s award to lose.