The Rum Diary (2011)

Genre: Comedy

Directed by: Bruce Robinson

Starring: Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Rispoli

Running time: 120 minutes

This 2011 movie is based on the novel of the same name written by Hunter S. Thompson. I haven’t read the book, so I cannot make any comparisons. That being said, I must admit I was quite a bit disappointed by the film.

Johnny Depp is convincing yet again here and the movie starts off interestingly enough. This is a story of a writer who cannot seem to find his voice and sell his books. Thus, he finds a job as a journalist in Puerto Rico. He counts on some colleagues to help him get acclimated to the area, but what he did not expect was to fall in love with a woman that is already spoken for, by a powerful man in San Juan. His problems are only just beginning at that point.

The premise of the movie is very interesting: A writer trying to find his voice. The road taken in this movie to get there is a big mess though. Soon enough, the film started going down too many different trails all at once, getting everybody lost along the way. This movie had potential. A great cast can make a big impact, but all we got is some rambling that became all so uninteresting in the end. Maybe the problem was the source material, but this movie didn’t do much to build upon it in a visual sense.

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