When you come across someone like Hunter S. Thompson you do either one of two things: allow yourself to be drawn into his hyper-vivid world of words and violent expression or you can run screaming. When Johnny Depp took on the role of Thompson for the epic drug trip Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Depp not only went willingly inside that world, he became its new champion, vowing to carry on the legend after what everyone knew would be the inevitable death of its creator. While Depp hasn't tried to transform himself into Thompson outside the silver screen (thank god, I don't think another human being could ever contain that level of energy) he has attempted at length to let people know who the real man was, the forever beating heart behind the literary lion.
The Rum Diary reports the semi-true story of Paul Kemp (Thompson's pseudonym for this tale), a struggling novelist looking for his true voice, mostly in the bottom of various bottles of alcohol. He finds himself in Puerto Rico working for the local paper, The San Juan Star, where the publication was already sounding the death knells, but he tries to make the best of it by making friends with locals and criminals alike. Finding himself embroiled in a land grab scheme and madly in love with another man's fiancée, Kemp fights to keep himself on the right side of his own ethical boundaries. The pressure may have crushed some men, but instead it only crystallizes his purpose in life.
There is a message in the film, but before we get to that, let's take a look at the package the message is wrapped in. Most people will remember Depp from his first foray into the mind of Thompson and likely come to the theater expecting more of the same drug-fueled insanity. That would be a dreadful mistake. With only one mildly hallucinogenic scene in the entire film, this is largely a straight forward story, with only a mild level of drunkenness in comparison to Fear and Loathing. While there is an inordinate amount of rum imbibed by nearly every person on screen, the core is really two love stories, one between Thompson and his femme fatale, the other between Thompson and his writing. Depp smoothly portrays the deeper and more thought-provoking side of Thompson, but I imagine many audience members left feeling disappointed by the absence of sheer lunacy which they have come to recognize as Thompson's foremost personality trait. Aaron Eckhart is seamless in his white collar criminal role, pillaging the pristine land of South America for the richest of the rich businessmen, but what is missing is a catharsis or closure to his storyline. By the time he turns, back to the camera and walks away, it lacks any real sense of importance. The other main role goes to Amber Heard (recently seen heading the now defunct TV show, The Playboy Club). She steals Thompson's heart (both on screen and in real life, she went on to become his wife, one of them) but her on-screen counterpart fails to really bring anything to the table except her looks. There was a wild impetuousness which helped frame the character, but it got old as the film ran on.
Now that we have firmly stomped some some of the reasons for this not being a wild success, let's look into what is really done well here and where the true heart lies. This is less of a traditional story and more about the formation of a moment in time, the moment where Hunter S. Thompson became the raging, unafraid, unabashed lunatic of the literary world. What you witness on screen is a depiction of the moment when he finds his real purpose, his true voice, and for a fellow writer like myself, this is a awe-inspiring and beautiful thing to see. The character ponders halfway through the film about where he is in his life as a writer, lamenting that he has not learned to write like himself yet. For aspiring writers there are few things more painful and frustrating than that. It is the key to our literary lives and once Thompson found his, he didn't just walk through the door, proud of his accomplishment, nay, he kicked the door off the hinges with a size thirteen and told everyone else in the room (past, present and future) to get the hell out of his way. There were few like him before and I imagine there will be even fewer after.
The Rum Diary reports the semi-true story of Paul Kemp (Thompson's pseudonym for this tale), a struggling novelist looking for his true voice, mostly in the bottom of various bottles of alcohol. He finds himself in Puerto Rico working for the local paper, The San Juan Star, where the publication was already sounding the death knells, but he tries to make the best of it by making friends with locals and criminals alike. Finding himself embroiled in a land grab scheme and madly in love with another man's fiancée, Kemp fights to keep himself on the right side of his own ethical boundaries. The pressure may have crushed some men, but instead it only crystallizes his purpose in life.
There is a message in the film, but before we get to that, let's take a look at the package the message is wrapped in. Most people will remember Depp from his first foray into the mind of Thompson and likely come to the theater expecting more of the same drug-fueled insanity. That would be a dreadful mistake. With only one mildly hallucinogenic scene in the entire film, this is largely a straight forward story, with only a mild level of drunkenness in comparison to Fear and Loathing. While there is an inordinate amount of rum imbibed by nearly every person on screen, the core is really two love stories, one between Thompson and his femme fatale, the other between Thompson and his writing. Depp smoothly portrays the deeper and more thought-provoking side of Thompson, but I imagine many audience members left feeling disappointed by the absence of sheer lunacy which they have come to recognize as Thompson's foremost personality trait. Aaron Eckhart is seamless in his white collar criminal role, pillaging the pristine land of South America for the richest of the rich businessmen, but what is missing is a catharsis or closure to his storyline. By the time he turns, back to the camera and walks away, it lacks any real sense of importance. The other main role goes to Amber Heard (recently seen heading the now defunct TV show, The Playboy Club). She steals Thompson's heart (both on screen and in real life, she went on to become his wife, one of them) but her on-screen counterpart fails to really bring anything to the table except her looks. There was a wild impetuousness which helped frame the character, but it got old as the film ran on.
Now that we have firmly stomped some some of the reasons for this not being a wild success, let's look into what is really done well here and where the true heart lies. This is less of a traditional story and more about the formation of a moment in time, the moment where Hunter S. Thompson became the raging, unafraid, unabashed lunatic of the literary world. What you witness on screen is a depiction of the moment when he finds his real purpose, his true voice, and for a fellow writer like myself, this is a awe-inspiring and beautiful thing to see. The character ponders halfway through the film about where he is in his life as a writer, lamenting that he has not learned to write like himself yet. For aspiring writers there are few things more painful and frustrating than that. It is the key to our literary lives and once Thompson found his, he didn't just walk through the door, proud of his accomplishment, nay, he kicked the door off the hinges with a size thirteen and told everyone else in the room (past, present and future) to get the hell out of his way. There were few like him before and I imagine there will be even fewer after.