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#67 - The Rum Diary
Bruce Robinson, 2011
In 1960 Puerto Rico, a journalist arrives to work on a newspaper but soon gets caught up in a number of dangerous situations during his tenure.s
For a long time, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has been one of my favourite books and Withnail and I has been one of my favourite films, so when Bruce Robinson was put on to direct a film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary, I was at once intrigued yet skeptical. It's hard not to think of Withnail and I as a directorial fluke, but then there was also the fact that they were bringing back Johnny Depp to play Thompson's fictitious alter-ego despite the fact that Thompson would have been in his early-twenties during the events of The Rum Diary while Depp is at least twice as old as that in this film. I still figured I should give it the benefit of the doubt.
The resulting film is ultimately rather flat. There are the odd concessions that feel like attempts to appease HST fans who came here expecting something similar to Fear and Loathing..., whether it's the inclusion of a swarthy Latino sidekick (Michael Rispoli) or a very brief hallucinogenic sequence that's not even freakish enough to be good and just comes across as a very unwelcome distraction. Aside from that, the narrative's too thin to be worthwhile. Depp's Thompson analogue is supposed to be a younger version that hasn't quite become the eccentric wild-man that people remember him as, but this has the effect of making him seem like he's sleepwalking through the role. Other roles aren't much better - his blandly free-spirited love interest (Amber Heard) and the smooth-talking businessman (Aaron Eckhart) help to make up a very boring love triangle that adds little to the main plot about some questionable land dealings on the part of Eckhart's character. Out of all the performers, Giovanni Ribisi is the one that stands out as a deranged reporter, but even so he's just the best of a bad situation in this context. Not even Richard Jenkins' turn as Depp's cynical boss manages to work well given the material.
Leaving aside the problems with acting and characterisation, this is still a pretty weak film. As much as I may like Withnail and I, I know that it's definitely not because of Robinson's direction - the same lack of a distinctive style defines The Rum Diary but without a decent script to build off it just exposes Robinson's extremely workmanlike directing abilities. Even if he did write the adaptation of Thompson's novel himself, the clever prose one could associate with him is almost completely absent. It might be worth watching once if you're a fan of Thompson's writing, but as a standalone film it leaves a lot to be desired.
Bruce Robinson, 2011
In 1960 Puerto Rico, a journalist arrives to work on a newspaper but soon gets caught up in a number of dangerous situations during his tenure.s
For a long time, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has been one of my favourite books and Withnail and I has been one of my favourite films, so when Bruce Robinson was put on to direct a film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary, I was at once intrigued yet skeptical. It's hard not to think of Withnail and I as a directorial fluke, but then there was also the fact that they were bringing back Johnny Depp to play Thompson's fictitious alter-ego despite the fact that Thompson would have been in his early-twenties during the events of The Rum Diary while Depp is at least twice as old as that in this film. I still figured I should give it the benefit of the doubt.
The resulting film is ultimately rather flat. There are the odd concessions that feel like attempts to appease HST fans who came here expecting something similar to Fear and Loathing..., whether it's the inclusion of a swarthy Latino sidekick (Michael Rispoli) or a very brief hallucinogenic sequence that's not even freakish enough to be good and just comes across as a very unwelcome distraction. Aside from that, the narrative's too thin to be worthwhile. Depp's Thompson analogue is supposed to be a younger version that hasn't quite become the eccentric wild-man that people remember him as, but this has the effect of making him seem like he's sleepwalking through the role. Other roles aren't much better - his blandly free-spirited love interest (Amber Heard) and the smooth-talking businessman (Aaron Eckhart) help to make up a very boring love triangle that adds little to the main plot about some questionable land dealings on the part of Eckhart's character. Out of all the performers, Giovanni Ribisi is the one that stands out as a deranged reporter, but even so he's just the best of a bad situation in this context. Not even Richard Jenkins' turn as Depp's cynical boss manages to work well given the material.
Leaving aside the problems with acting and characterisation, this is still a pretty weak film. As much as I may like Withnail and I, I know that it's definitely not because of Robinson's direction - the same lack of a distinctive style defines The Rum Diary but without a decent script to build off it just exposes Robinson's extremely workmanlike directing abilities. Even if he did write the adaptation of Thompson's novel himself, the clever prose one could associate with him is almost completely absent. It might be worth watching once if you're a fan of Thompson's writing, but as a standalone film it leaves a lot to be desired.