A consensus may never be reached as to whether Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is actually a good movie or simply an outrageously frenetic and evocative one, but even a disgusted viewer would have to concede one point: it never lacks for the bold iconoclasm that made Hunter S. Thompson such a distinguished name in American letters. Despite being considered a failure at the time of its release, Terry Gilliam's adaptation casts a long shadow, from which The Rum Diary can't quite escape. Whether it really tried to is debatable (the casting of Johnny Depp in the lead role almost suggests that this film is a sequel), but the comparison is not favorable, and it serves to highlight what's missing in Diary: a sense of perspective. Fear and Loathing's worldview was so erratic that it boiled over into a clear perspective all its own, while Diary frequently suggests that it is a film that it clearly isn't.
Jack Kemp (Depp) is your stock Thompson stand-in: boozy, possessed of notions that he struggles to both express and contain. He ventures to Puerto Rico in 1960 with the promise of employment at a local newspaper run by Edward Lotterman (Richard Jenkins, in easily the film's stand-out performance), a broken-down, world-weary hack who's convinced that a less challenging, more optimistic perspective is all that could save the struggling paper. It's soon clear exactly why the paper is failing, being staffed by people like amiable but drunken Salah (Michael Rispoli, another standout) and reprobate Nazi enthusiast Moburg (Giovanni Ribisi). But a twist of fortune comes when Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart) takes an interest in Kemp, and offers him work providing a newspaper front to his secretive investment operations in the Carribbean. Taking a no less illicit interest in Kemp is Sanderson's girlfriend Chenault (Amber Heard), whose boredom and need for excitement threaten to get Kemp in even more trouble than he's already in.
Depp plays Kemp in the same way that he played Raoul Duke: bemused, frequently reacting with perplexity to a world roughly interchangeable with that of his drug-induced hallucinations. Both are bound to their creative voices, and unable to affect their environments by any means other than writing about them. But the Las Vegas of Fear and Loathing is a considerably more active than Diary's Puerto Rico, the very walls and ceilings dripping with excess, perversion, and conspiracy, so that, no matter how intoxicated he may be, his response mirrors our own. In contrast, the characters in Diary have clearly definable goals and motivations, all of which inexplicably involve Kemp, who is portrayed throughout as an alcoholic without a clear voice and not doing enough to find it. What came across in Fear and Loathing as good-timing here can't help but strike one as a cipher, an inactive respondent with no definite opinions (save that Amber Heard is attractive, and that he wouldn't mind sleeping with her if given the chance).
But the real problem comes when Diary appears to recognize this as a liability, and inadvertently reveals both its weak characterization and its logical disconnects. Throughout, Kemp never seems to realize the significance of what he's doing, even when being asked to sign non-disclosure contracts, and behaves as such in front of both Lotterman and Sanderson. When inevitable consequences arise, and Kemp seems to gain a sense of righteous indignation, one can't help but wonder: why now? What is it about these events that instigated this newfound crusade, when the corruption of his surroundings has been clear to the audience since the first reel? Granted, a good deal of it has to do with his attraction to Chenault, which only serves to undercut the honesty that the climax seems to insist is there. When the noble speechifying comes in hard and heavy, the entertainment value of Diary slams to a halt, and a film that had previously worked best as a travelogue (you will want to go to Puerto Rico when this over) assumes an importance that it never really justifies, and banks hard on a momentum that it never really gathers.
"The Rum Diary" opens October 28, 2011 and is rated R. Comedy, Drama. Written and directed by Bruce Robinson. Starring Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard, Giovanni Ribisi, Johnny Depp, Michael Rispoli, Richard Jenkins.
