Review of The Rum Diary (2011) by Stephen C — 19 Mar 2012
Good rather than great adaption of Hunter S Thompsons novel of the same name .
What works is Depps performance as Paul Kemp, a party hard journalist who winds up working for a newspaper in Puerto Rico and fall foul of the islands vices most notably rum.
Depp is good here as the permanently hungover Kemp who forms part of a trio of booze hounds which in cludes Michael Rispoli as Sala and Giovanni Ribisi as the very odd ball Moburg .
The film lights up when those three are onscreen and they have some very funny moments together.
What does work is the rest of the story and the pacing which are both a bit off here.
Araon Eckhart fails to convince as the landgrabbing Sanderson ,he's just not sleazy enough to carry the role off.
The pacing hurts the film in the latter parts as it begins to drag and the ending is a huge letdown afterakll thats gone on beforehand .
You want to see Sanderson get his just desserts but the film just end with a whimper instead of a bang.
Its good to have Bruce Robinson back in the directors chair ,but the film could have done with some editing towards the climax as I began to switch off which was a shame as I had high hopes for the film .
Not a bad film then ,but with the talent in front and behind the camera it shouls have soared instead of just floating along.
This review of The Rum Diary (2011) was written by Stephen C on 19 Mar 2012.
The Rum Diary has generally received mixed reviews.
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