"The Rum Diary" is Johnny Depp's movie. Before the first line, before the first real object appears, and even before the title shows up, Depp's name is presented in strong, block letters, welcoming the viewer to the Johnny Depp show and setting the tone for the story that follows.
Comparisons with Terry Gilliam's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1998) are unavoidable, not only because both films are based on books by Hunter S. Thompson, but also because they share an almost identical story structure. In this sense, it is immediately clear that writer and director Bruce Robinson wants to capture the same mania that made Gilliam's film such a lasting cult success.
The result is respectable and entertaining, but it is ultimately less engaging and memorable. It's difficult to believe that this is Robinson's fault, however. Many rejected the novel version of "The Rum Diary" (1999) for publication until Thompson's career was already well-established.
In many ways, the book serves as a prequel for the madness that would eventually give Thompson his literary personality in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1972). While it's always entertaining to watch a madman going from drug binge to drug binge in Las Vegas on a "savage journey" through the American Dream, the same can't be said of a boozy drive around Puerto Rico.
Depp reprises his role as one of Thompson's alter egos, journalist Paul Kemp. Soon after moving to Puerto Rico, Kemp begins writing for a dingy newspaper, and, through a scattered series of events, he becomes friends with a local American real estate agent, Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart). Sanderson immediately charges Kemp to write about the beauty of Puerto Rico in order to earn American investment for a giant real estate scam. One wild trophy wife, some Adolf Hitler speech recordings and a drunken arrest later, Kemp finds himself seeking retribution against those who tried to fool him.
But almost none of this is important. True to the successful Thompson and Gilliam form, Kemp mostly bounces between drunken events, becoming the unlikely emotional anchor for the various alcoholics and free spirits surrounding him. In any other movie, this wouldn't be a problem: The characters are likeable, the surreal events just barely maintain plausibility and the tropical paradise is absolutely dreamy.
Unfortunately, those familiar with "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" — either the book or the film — will be mostly unsatisfied with the sobriety of the entire affair. Kemp is neither as sharp nor as fascinating as Raoul Duke of "Fear and Loathing," and those familiar with Hunter S. Thompson will be left wanting more.
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" ends with an aggressive drug binge on adrenochrome, an absurd hallucinogen purportedly made from a living donor's adrenaline gland. "The Rum Diary," meanwhile, ends on a mild hallucinogenic sedative at night, followed by some walking around. The film's muted ending demonstrates exactly where the "The Rum Diary" loses its footing: The same second-by-second storytelling that kick-started "Fear and Loathing" simply does not work for something as relaxed as "The Rum Diary."
This is not to say that the movie is bad — taken on its own merits, it serves as a fun and interesting prequel for the wave of hysteria Thompson is about to break. The two secondary characters of mention are very real and appropriate foils to Kemp's coming-of-age, with Michael Rispoli as a bored cynic and Giovanni Ribisi as an alcoholic ex-Nazi who finishes people's drinks and smokes their cigarette butts.
Depp's artistic integrity has been hurt lately by a series of films, including "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" (2011) and "Alice in Wonderland" (2010), so his return to one of his older character types may reflect an attempt to restore his image. At first, Kemp's passivity is off-putting, but Depp wisely focuses on Kemp's internalization of the influences around him, which eventually leads to a determined, climactic and appropriate departure from Puerto Rico as the film draws to a close.
All in all, Puerto Rico is a beautiful island, and Robinson's 1960s re-imagining — while questionable in its authenticity — gives appropriate justice to the natural paradise. As a prequel to the life of Hunter S. Thompson, the movie functions superbly. Although it is burdened by narrative problems, "The Rum Diary" is a consistently quaint and jumpy romp through the worst and the best of people in the Caribbean and the United States.
