Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

The Rum Diary (2010)

Director: Bruce Robinson

Time Out rating

Average user rating

6 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

The story goes that Johnny Depp was with Hunter S Thompson in the author’s basement rifling through boxes when he came across the manuscript of ‘The Rum Diary’ – a novel Thompson wrote in the early 1960s aged 22, fictionalising his stint on a newspaper in Puerto Rico. Depp persuaded him to publish. Oh, and why not make a film? The result is surprisingly un-addled, an affectionate, from-the-heart tribute to Thompson (who died in 2005) – though perhaps more conventional than any film associated with him has any right to be. While it features plenty of mild, boozy havoc-wreaking, you’ll find no uppers or downers here, no rage, no cocaine, no mescaline and virtually no loss of motor skills.

Using super-strength bleach, writer/director Bruce Robinson (‘Withnail and I’) has disinfected the novel into an origins story – a kind of ‘Gonzo: The Early Years’. Depp plays Thompson’s alter ego (as he did in ‘Fear and Loathing’): Paul Kemp, a failed 30-year-old novelist who washes up in the office of a two-bit tourist rag in Puerto Rico. ‘I’ve got no voice. I don’t know how to write like me,’ he complains. This is Thompson before he invented gonzo journalism – that frenzy of non-fiction-fiction he aimed at those he believed to be crooks and imposters. How does Kemp find his writing style? Dropping acid for the first time lights the fire. The story is stoked by a run-in with a corrupt property developer (Aaron Eckhart) and his distractingly gorgeous girlfriend (Amber Heard).

It’s funny as hell in places and touchingly warm. But, like Thompson without gonzo, ‘The Rum Diary’ is directionless and a little lacking in tone. And you have to ask if Depp – at 48 – is a fraction too old to play 30. I’m not sure. He looks in better shape than men half his age. But that unassailable, unshakaeble, unruffled charisma does make him hard to buy as a man on his uppers. Caution: this may leave you hankering for a little cynical, subversive bile.

Author: Cath Clarke

Time Out London Issue 2151: 10 – 16 November, 2011

Email Tweet Share

User reviews of this film

fun but patchy said...

Posted on Nov 24 2011 02:32 I did laugh out loud in places, but, although I'd agree it was 'directionless', I actually thought the weakest bits were when there was some sort of discernable plot, like the love story element, or the property development bit. I thought everyone was really good in it, and I much prefer Johnny Depp playing a 'real person' than a Mad Hatter or a fictional chocolate factory owner.

Report as inappropriate
ARCHGATE said...

Posted on Nov 17 2011 12:32 As dull as the front of my boxer shorts. Made it without falling asleep, taking a slash. Not edgy enough considering the work of the original author. Depp is a little bit too old for the role and the Ribisi is totally miscast as the messed up ex-reporter. 5.5/10

Report as inappropriate
scrumpyjack said...

Posted on Nov 15 2011 11:19 Pretty straightforward story (bar our 3 drunken heroes) with the Great Jenkins and the good (again) Depp. Not much more to report...worth a trip! 7/10

Report as inappropriate
NettaUK said...

Posted on Nov 12 2011 20:36 After reading a book,then seeing the film of said book,it's highly unlikely to work(have experienced this so many times).I am waiting for delivery of a CD,to compare.I enjoyed this film,although after so much negativity....I nearly didn't go to see it.Don't think our American cousins would approve.No interruptions from cell phones TG!.Pity there isn't a 3.1/2 star rating

Report as inappropriate
Robert said...

Posted on Nov 11 2011 23:45 I was really looking forward to this film, but ultimately left feeling rather deflated. Every time yuou think the story is going somewhere, it seems to peter out, and eventually time starts to drag. Looks nice, though.

Report as inappropriate
Robert said...

Posted on Nov 11 2011 23:45 I was really looking forward to this film, but ultimately left feeling rather deflated. Every time yuou think the story is going somewhere, it seems to peter out, and eventually time starts to drag. Looks nice, though.

Report as inappropriate