The Rum Diary by Hunter S Thompson is the story of a wanna be writer who fakes his resume to get a job at a Puerto Rico newspaper. Johnny Depp plays Paul Kemp, whose job at the newspaper includes such hot topics as the daily horoscope and league bowling scores. In his spare time he gets involved in cock fighting, experimenting with drugs, and being part of an evil plan to turn an island into a tropical resort.
The Rum Diary is not exactly blockbuster material. It’s filled with the mundane acts of a mundane life. Our hero gets drunk, smokes cigarettes, and lusts after a beautiful woman. His only interactions with the locals of Puerto Rico have to do with cock fights, drunks that want to kill him, and a legal system that wants to put him in jail for the rest of his life. And yet, after seeing one small child living in an abandoned car, he becomes a crusader for the native population. Well, he is a Novelist, so he naturally turns away from the one chance he has of making any real money and focuses his limited attention on fighting the good fight.
The real star of the Rum Diary is the Puerto Rico of the late 1950s. Twisting palm tree lined roads filled with classic cars and colorful buildings. A world where Americans are tolerated, but at the same time, the Americans view the island as their personal property. There are no good Americans and no good Puerto Ricans on view in the Rum Diary.
I like Johnny Depp, but I have a hard time remember the last time I really loved one of his films. The Rum Diary was like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd-I really wanted to like it, but found that there was not much there to like. There were one or two funny bits, but for the most part the story of a group of drunken lowlifes is not really all that funny.
