In a film that many would have expected would have had the same flavor of eccentricity as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny Depp adopts another onscreen persona from famed gonzo writer Hunter S. Thompson and explores the early days of the 1960s in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan, playing freelance journalist Paul Kemp, a disillusioned New York writer.
What is The Rum Diary About?
America is still in its Eisenhower days and the presidential race between a young Kennedy and an older Nixon is in progress. A cynical New York City based writer, Paul Kemp (Depp), decides he's had it with his homeland's continuous barrage of lying politicians, and decides to make a career move towards warmer climes, and gets hired by a small Puerto Rican newspaper, the San Juan Star, where he reports to an even more belligerent editor (Richard Jenkins).
It doesn't take long for Kemp to start falling into vices shared by many of the exiled writers he shares office space with, drowning himself in copious amounts of rum and beer, spending his days nursing vicious hangovers and struggling to meet deadlines, in the company of his new friend, staff photographer Bob Sala (Michael Rispoli).
Kemp eventually learns of a potential scoop which may finally take him off the drudge of writing up unimaginative horoscopes, a juicy story involving a wealthy businessman named Hal Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart) whose plans to buy pristine island property from the American military may in fact cause the destruction of the area's last virgin territory.
Kemp finds himself embroiled in Sanderson's shady business deals, and is struggling to keep out of trouble, especially when he meets the man's stunning girlfriend, Chenault (Amber Heard). Now faced with more corruption than he'd run away from back in New York, can Kemp just sit idly on the sidelines and watch the rich and powerful profit once again, or will he decide to try and make a difference, that is, assuming he can stay sober long enough?
Rum Diary a Victim of Mangled Narrative
I'd had high expectations from this movie, being familiar with Thompson's works, including this book, which loosely recounted the writer's days in the American sovereign state. While everyone knows of Thompson's proclivity towards any inebriating and/or illicit substance, there was also the other side of him which contained an incredibly well-read, outspoken and erudite rebel just waiting to erupt if provoked the right way.
Sadly, Bruce Robinson's comical drama never quite decides which aspect of Thompson's alter ego Paul Kemp's psyche to focus on, resulting in a sort of cinematic equivalent to bipolar disorder, where we alternate between rambling drunkenness evocative of Terry Gilliam's Las Vegas tale, and an overwrought tale of intrigue where most of the players seem carefree and oblivious to basic consequences, as if giving in to abandon, both political and plot-wise.
Johnny Depp, also a producer on the film, does his best to pay tribute to his late friend one more time, by using the choppy cadence for which the gonzo journalist had been known, lending the movie a sense of much needed familiarity. Alas, the plot gets so muddled that one will truly stop caring after the third or fourth drunken binge. It's almost like the screenwriter/director had a dozen great ideas, never finished a single one of them, finally deciding to scotch tape them together and hope for cohesion.
Rum Diary Blu-Ray Bonus Features
You'll find nothing of real value here, mostly some b-roll footage, a handful of interviews and trailer. Worthwhile content is as elusive as sobriety, in this case.
The Final Word on The Rum Diary
I'd normally be hard pressed to say Depp can rarely make a bad movie, given his charisma and popular appeal to the masses. While this film does have all the feel of a personal project done out of love for a departed friend, I can truly say the narrative could have been a tad more complete, less confusing or at the very least, compelling.
Failing to meet those requirements, we as the audience can only sit back like a designated driver, and watch as the story's characters run around in circles, aspiring to much but achieving nothing.
The Rum Diary: 2 out of 5
Dominic Messier - Dominic Messier is a Toronto-based Film & TV writer, Sci-Fi TV and Film Dramas Topic Editor, and creator of PopCultureLandscape.com
