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Amazon.co.uk Review
Actor-producer Johnny Depp pays homage to his friend Hunter S. Thompson through this sprightly adaptation of the novelist's semi-autobiographical novel. Depp plays Paul Kemp, the booze-sozzled journalist who takes centre stage in Bruce Robinson's period comedy. Out of desperation, the New Yorker takes a job with a San Juan newspaper in 1960, where he reports to the cynical Lotterman (Richard Jenkins) and shares a squalid flat with laid-back photographer Sala (The Sopranos' Michael Rispoli) and the truly unhinged "crime and religion" reporter Moburg (a scene-stealing Giovanni Ribisi). The three Ugly Americans do their best to drain the island's rum supply until Kemp meets Aaron Eckhart's slick Sanderson, who recruits the writer to promote his real estate ventures, regardless as to the number of poverty-stricken Puerto Ricans his hotels will displace. Politically, Kemp leans left, but he needs the dough, so he accepts the offer, only to find the ultimate temptation in Sanderson's uninhibited fiancée, Chenault (the stunning Amber Heard). It's a tricky balancing act, but when the natives start getting restless, Kemp risks losing everything. If the conclusion feels anticlimactic, Robinson keeps the antic energy going through nerve-wracking car chases, balletic cock fights, and a hilarious acid excursion that recalls the hotel trip-out in Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, to which Robinson's film serves as a less surrealistic cousin. If it isn't as certain to become a cult classic, like the director's equally inebriated Withnail and I, Depp and company always remain true to Thompson's irascible spirit. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
DVD Description
Based on the debut novel by Hunter S. Thompson which initiated his long, distinguished and brilliantly unpredictable career, The Rum Diary tells the increasingly unhinged story of itinerant journalist Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp). Tiring of the noise and madness of New York and the crushing conventions of late Eisenhower-era America, Kemp travels to the pristine island of Puerto Rico to write for a local newspaper, The San Juan Star, run by downtrodden editor Lotterman (Richard Jenkins). Adopting the rum-soaked life of the late 50s version of Hemmingway’s lost generation, Paul soon becomes increasingly obsessed with Chenault (Amber Heard), the wildly attractive Connecticut-born fiancée of Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart), a businessman involved in shady property development deals.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Spoilers.
By 'flat' I mean there are no real spikes along the way to really hook you in. The Rum Diary is a film about finding your voice and yet in search of a voice of its own. Entertaining, yes, but weirdly lacking 'something' to make it all gel together.
Depp channels Hunter magnificently (again) and the plot bounces along at a spritely pace, but it is entirely without focus in telling the real story of how the fictional Paul Kemp became Hunter S. Thompson. The bastards win, pessimism prevails, there is lots of drinking and a few brief honest glimpses of what it is to be a writer (the unflattering description of Kemp's CV sums it up). Sandwiched into the proceedings is a 'go nowhere' romantic sub-plot, a slew of set-ups that are deliciously pulled out from under the viewer as everything falls apart and pedestrian, almost TV movie direction from Bruce Robinson. Seriously, if you missed it at the cinema, the television/home cinema experience won't detract.
On the plus side, it is well written. Bruce Robinson's script is literate and layered - maybe too layered with various plot strands - but The Rum Diary could almost be a prequel to Terry Gilliam's 'Fear & Loathing'.
The film leads you along but takes you to the one place you never expected - a marina theft for a gloomy finale. Try and throw your expectations out of the window when watching this, it might even benefit from a second viewing, because there are lots of hidden treasures in The Rum Diary - they're just obscured by a rambling, excessive plot that burns out and manages to turn this flaw into a redeeming feature. Watch it, you'll know what I mean!
By 'flat' I mean there are no real spikes along the way to really hook you in. The Rum Diary is a film about finding your voice and yet in search of a voice of its own. Entertaining, yes, but weirdly lacking 'something' to make it all gel together.
Depp channels Hunter magnificently (again) and the plot bounces along at a spritely pace, but it is entirely without focus in telling the real story of how the fictional Paul Kemp became Hunter S. Thompson. The bastards win, pessimism prevails, there is lots of drinking and a few brief honest glimpses of what it is to be a writer (the unflattering description of Kemp's CV sums it up). Sandwiched into the proceedings is a 'go nowhere' romantic sub-plot, a slew of set-ups that are deliciously pulled out from under the viewer as everything falls apart and pedestrian, almost TV movie direction from Bruce Robinson. Seriously, if you missed it at the cinema, the television/home cinema experience won't detract.
On the plus side, it is well written. Bruce Robinson's script is literate and layered - maybe too layered with various plot strands - but The Rum Diary could almost be a prequel to Terry Gilliam's 'Fear & Loathing'.
The film leads you along but takes you to the one place you never expected - a marina theft for a gloomy finale. Try and throw your expectations out of the window when watching this, it might even benefit from a second viewing, because there are lots of hidden treasures in The Rum Diary - they're just obscured by a rambling, excessive plot that burns out and manages to turn this flaw into a redeeming feature. Watch it, you'll know what I mean!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I also, as another reviewer said, don't get what people are complaining about. Maybe because it had an actual PLOT, people didn't find it enjoyable. Not enough sex and violence perhaps? Just intelligent dialogue and ideas set in an amusing way with some attractive yet real people playing the stars. IMHO it is the best j.Depp has done in a lonnng while. Bravo!
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I really don't understand why some people don't rate this movie at all. It takes all sorts, I suppose. For me, The Rum Diary is an often hilarious drama and something a bit different for Johnny Depp who plays the role of Paul Kemp, an American journalist who goes to work for a small and struggling newspaper in the America owned island of Puerto Rico during the 1960s. Kemp says, at the job interview, that his c.v. is as phoney as his stories. Over all, the newspaper staff seem to be a dysfunctional lot surviving on booze and drugs, red-eyed Kemp included as he swigs back the rum and tries to fit into the local hispanic scene with little success. But, it's hard to keep out of trouble when you go falling for a rich man's wife (Amber Heard), and a crooked rich man (Aaron Eckhart) at that.
I thought I would never say it but, in this, there are times that Johnny Depp is not a pretty sight. There is one scene in particular that had me rolling in the aisles, so to speak. When he and a colleague are in a small car together, a couple of gringos being chased by nasty Puerto Ricans. I laugh as I type, at the memory of it. If you check the trailer on YouTube, it shows a bit of it.
Kemp's accommodation is garbage but Puerto Rico looks fun. I went there in the 90s and it wasn't half as lively. I must have checked into the wrong hotel.
I'm not in the least surprised to find that I enjoyed this movie because it was directed by Bruce Robinson who directed the classic and hilarious British movie, 'Withnail & I' (1987) as well as Still Crazy (1998).
The Rum Diary movie is based on the book by Hunter S. Thompson, available at Amazon.
Love it or hate it, I guess.
I thought I would never say it but, in this, there are times that Johnny Depp is not a pretty sight. There is one scene in particular that had me rolling in the aisles, so to speak. When he and a colleague are in a small car together, a couple of gringos being chased by nasty Puerto Ricans. I laugh as I type, at the memory of it. If you check the trailer on YouTube, it shows a bit of it.
Kemp's accommodation is garbage but Puerto Rico looks fun. I went there in the 90s and it wasn't half as lively. I must have checked into the wrong hotel.
I'm not in the least surprised to find that I enjoyed this movie because it was directed by Bruce Robinson who directed the classic and hilarious British movie, 'Withnail & I' (1987) as well as Still Crazy (1998).
The Rum Diary movie is based on the book by Hunter S. Thompson, available at Amazon.
Love it or hate it, I guess.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
BrownPolar Verdict
`The Rum Diary', without a doubt is the funniest and the most satisfying political satire I have ever seen, having surpassed `Goodbye Lenin! Read more
Published 12 days ago by BrownPolar
Deppuolous
I am a huge johnny fan and have brought all his films and was really excited about this film. as i am with all johnny films so i cant belive what im going to write rum diary takes... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Boody
Very funny and entertaining
A big commercial flop, this intelligent comedy was dismissed by the critics and ignored by the public, and yet I must say that I quite enjoyed it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Andres C. Salama
Could have been better, Read the book.
Having seen and read Fear and Loathing, I had quite high expectations for another Depp portrayal of a HST character. Read more
Published 1 month ago by George Mangifesta
Good fun
OK, it wasn't the most interesting of films, but it was good fun. I found it a bit slow to get started. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Susannah
Would avoid to prevent disappoinment
I was long of the opinion that Johnny Depp didn't pick a bad script, and had the midas touch amongst Hollywood film, well I can safely say.... I was wrong. Read more
Published 2 months ago by CT.
Fun, but just not good enough
I'm a huge fan of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas so naturally figured this would be a great film for me. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sturbow
Odd diary entry from another dreary Depp doss about
This is a light-hearted, easy watch that doesn't really go anywhere.
The over-rated Depp looks at home, at ease as a drifty oddball drunk again, supported by the oddly... Read more
The over-rated Depp looks at home, at ease as a drifty oddball drunk again, supported by the oddly... Read more
Published 2 months ago by T. BROOKES
Even the great Johnny Depp struggles to save this
The Rum Diaries is based on another of writer Hunter S Thompson's books. Depp originally played the man himself in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and gained many fans, much kudos... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Albatross
hmmmmm nothing like the trailer shows
I am a big fan of Johnny Depp and especially fear and loathing. However this just doesn't hit the mark in the slightest. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Little Ball and Chain
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