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Robinson also wrote the screenplay, his first since 1999's In Dreams and only his seventh since he was Oscar-nominated for his debut adaptation, The Killing Fields. The former actor, probably best known for playing Benvolio in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 Romeo and Juliet, sat in the director's chair here for the first time since 1992's Jennifer Eight. The lack of recognition marks the film as somewhat of an inauspicious return for Bruce Robinson.
#The rum diary movie
The movie has won just a single award acknowledged by IMDb: Amber Heard being recognized with one of seven Spotlight Awards by the obscure Hollywood Film Festival. The performance couldn't have been entirely unexpected, since though shot in 2009 and bearing a 2010 copyright date, Rum sat waiting for a choice release window, with fledgling FilmDistrict finally deciding on a reasonable late-October debut close enough to awards season to be remembered but far away enough not to look like Oscar bait.Īnd no one will accuse The Rum Diary of being Oscar bait, because it just wasn't received strongly enough to even warrant being called a snub by the various awards parties. You'd have to go back to 1999's costly dud The Astronaut's Wife to find a comparable flop. This was Depp's weakest showing in a wide release since Pirates of the Caribbean cemented him as an A-list movie star. That would explain why the movie was a complete non-starter at the box office, its pitiful $24 million worldwide gross just barely recouping half of the production budget. It feels like a movie older folks might enjoy, if they gave it a chance, and one that might bore younger people expecting Depp's now signature mania or a Fear and Loathing sequel. The Rum Diary is strange, but considerably less so than Thompson's previous narrative film adaptation. In addition to the aforementioned, Richard Jenkins plays the Star's toupeed editor-in-chief and Giovanni Ribisi is Moberg, an insane, not exactly employed alcoholic and unreliable roommate who gets some kicks out of listening to records of Hitler speeches. There are times when Thompson/Duke's voice becomes so very clear, such as when Kemp is ragging on Nixon or vowing to stand up to "the bastards." Undoubtedly, Depp's encounters with the author shape his performance.ĭepp gets a decent amount of support here. And yet, this is still largely a film that feels under the influence of something. We get almost none of the trippy imagery of Terry Gilliam and only "brief drug use" factors into the MPAA's R rating description. Kemp feels like a toned-down version of the embellished, rarely lucid Duke. The film is as interested in atmosphere as story and allows us plenty of opportunity to soak up the sunny scenery and effervescent flavor of Puerto Rico, where it indeed was shot. Instead of following through on just one central thread, The Rum Diary gives us a little bit of everything: Kemp's romantic desires, labor setbacks at the Star, and his mixed feelings on and obligations to Sanderson's racket.
#The rum diary series
Far more tickled by Sanderson's beautiful beach bunny fiancée Chenault (Amber Heard) than his plans to commercialize a small uninhabited island with a series of hotels, Kemp nonetheless gets dragged into the development and made to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Fortunately for them, their bond is paid by Hal Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart), a wealthy, influential American who is looking for Kemp to do business with him. Intoxication leaves Kemp and Sala in serious trouble with the law and looking at a jail sentence. With drug experimentation not yet in vogue, Kemp gets high on alcohol, especially the local favorite, rum. Gonzo, nicely played by Michael Rispoli). Kemp finds adventure elsewhere, moving in with the husky and sympathetic photographer Bob Sala (this film's Dr. Like the motorcycle race in Fear, the astrology column is beneath our antihero and of little interest to both him and us. Aspiring New York novelist Paul Kemp (Depp) arrives in San Juan, Puerto Rico a day late to work as a horoscope writer for The San Juan Star, a modest newspaper whose future seems uncertain to its staff. Depp, who developed a well-documented friendship with Thompson before the latter's 2005 death, treats Rum nearly like another roman à clef, the result of an unmistakably autobiographical protagonist. Thompson, written in the early 1960s and finally published in 1998. The Rum Diary offers perhaps the closest we'll ever get to Depp reprising Duke, because this film adapts a long-lost novel by Fear and Loathing author Hunter S. In the pantheon of iconic Johnny Depp film characters, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' Raoul Duke ranks somewhere near Captain Jack Sparrow and Depp's many distinctive personalities for director Tim Burton.