Has all the rum dried up?

Bruce Robinson’s highly anticipated Rum Diary flew onto screens last week; with a cocktail of reviews from critics. Based on Hunter S. Thompson’s novel of the same title, the story portrays the life of Paul Kemp, a journalist with the potential for success, but  hindered by a taste for alcohol and a leniency towards psychedelics. This is the latest instalment of Thompson’s self-stylised “Gonzo” literature to be translated to film. The latter being the controversial Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, in which we again see Johnny Depp as Thompson’s drug and alcohol fuelled alter ego, as Bill Murray had done some years before in Where the Buffalo Roam.

It is widely known and accepted that both Murray and Depp had immersed themselves in Thompson’s chaotic world so to fully dissect Thompson’s, somewhat, fractured personae. Both Murray and Depp’s performances were highly regarded by critics and Thompson fans alike, their mirror-like performances of Thompson were complimented by their own anti-poster boy lives (at the time) and the mixture was a success. So what changed with the Rum Diary?

Visually; the film is a beautiful mixture of white sands, clear water and blue skies, with a simple acid-like injection and maybe it is this romanticism of the films imagery that fractures its foundations. The narrative was lifted straight from the novel, however, the film seemingly lost the honest and poetic narrative became overshadowed by the traditional Hollywood designed love story. Depp’s passion, for all that is Thompson, is clear and his performance is calculated and well delivered. However, there is something absent for me; aesthetically Depp fails to attain the level of accessibility he did as Raol Duke (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), and that Murray achieves in Where the Buffalo Roam. Depp’s now Hollywood appearance detracts from Kemp’s alcohol marinated lifestyle, which we can assume, would be physically resonant, and this ultimately transformed the amusement of Kemp’s quirky and unhinged character into idiocracy.

Depp’s friendship with Thompson and Hunter’s death were clear catalysts for the film’s production. However, I feel the role of Kemp should have been passed on to another; such was the case from Murray to Depp, to the non-conformist actor of the next generation; whoever that may be...