Review - The Rum Diary

It’s early morning and a sweaty, hung-over Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) wakes up in a hotel room covered in empty bottles and smashed in furniture. As he barely gains consciousness, he staggers across the floor to open the curtains, where he is greeted by radiant sunlight and a lavish oceanic view. Welcome to Puerto Rico.

As far as openings go, it’s an attention grabber. The first scenes of The Rum Diary, populated with a plethora of drunken, degenerate journalists, promise an anarchic romp to rival director Bruce Robinson’s acclaimed Withnail & I and Depp’s previous stab at debauchery in Fear & Loathing Las Vegas (just substitute drugs with booze and the muddy English countryside with a lush Caribbean isle). Sixties' counterculture and a jazzy rumba score further add to excitement, as does Amber Heard’s Aphrodite-like entrance as a temptress with a penchant for skinny-dipping…

… But then something happens to ruin it all. Or rather, nothing happens at all. See, The Rum Diary is adapted from a Hunter S. Thompson novel that remained incomplete for a long time before the author was coerced into finishing it. This sense of intermittence is also palpable on-screen, with Robinson not knowing what to do with the plot and the characters after a cracking first act.

The end result is a film that feels episodic in structure and thematically incoherent. It is never clear whether we’re supposed to take Kemp’s journalistic crusade seriously or not. He may be moved by the sight of poor Puerto Rican kids living in abandoned cars and at one point attempts to rally his colleagues to rise against the corporate machine, but he never acts upon his words. This may say a lot about Kemp (or Thompson, for that matter) as a character, but it also means we’re left with an aimless narrative that doesn’t reward our patience.

Thankfully, The Rum Diary manages to deliver some comedic value that saves it from total ignominy. A preposterous car chase featuring the most inventive use of an alcoholic weapon is the film’s highpoint, followed closely by the most decadent courtroom scene to grace our screens this year. The fact that Depp carries these scenes just goes to show what a gifted physical comedian he’s become and we all know where he perfected his bumbling buffoon act (hint: it’s a series of films also set in the Caribbean).

Nevertheless, don’t let the sporadic laughs fool you into thinking this isn’t a disappointing achievement. The film may have rum in the title, but that shouldn’t mean you need to be drunk to enjoy it.

2/5