By Mark HadleyTuesday 6 Mar 2012MoviesReading Time: 3 minutes
The Rum Diaries
Rating: M
Distributor: Fox
Release Date: March 15
What is the going price for integrity? The Rum Diary suggests that for an ocean view and a holiday in the sun, most people would be prepared to sell every smidgeon of integrity they possessed. Sadly the film sells all of its own credibility to make the point.
The Rum Diary is the story of Paul Kemp, an alcohol-fuelled writer who takes a post at a failing daily in Puerto Rico. Kemp has lied to get his job at the San Juan Star, but it hardly matters since the paper is so desperate it currently puts up with the most inept and inebriated staff. Initially Kemp is assigned the task of finding words for tourist pieces and horoscopes. In the process he discovers an expatriate community hell-bent on self-destruction. At the lower end of the spectrum are journalists like the Politics and Religious Affairs correspondent Moberg, who only climbs out of a bottle to decry the church and support Nazism. At the other end are wealthy entrepreneurs like Sanderson who are bent on building hotels on every last foot of coastline for huge profits. Kemp sways between both camps, attempting to preserve his integrity through his rum-soaked adventures. Can he stay true to his conscience, or will he surrender to one of the camps striving to seduce his point of view?
The Rum Diary is based on the book of the same name by legendary US journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson was a mercurial figure credited with the invention of ‘Gonzo journalism’, a style of writing where the reporter so immersed themselves in their topic that they became part of the story. The Rum Diary was his second novel and paralleled his own experiences living and working in San Juan in the 1960s. Thompson was an iconoclast with an extreme disdain for authority, whose tastes ran to drug abuse and a penchant for firearms. Johnny Depp, who plays Kemp, was a personal friend of Thompson and ensures the author continues to colour the film.
Unfortunately The Rum Diary’s scathing criticisms of self-indulgence at every level would have more impact if they weren’t so undermined by the central character. Kemp’s ultimate claim to the moral high ground is undermined by his persistently immoral behaviour. He looks on Sanderson’s development opportunities with disdain, reflecting ruefully, “Human beings are the only creatures on the planet who claim a god and the only ones who behave like they won’t answer to one,” and quotes Oscar Wilde, “They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” But Kemp has no personal work ethic to speak of, lies as easily as breathing and only struggles half-heartedly against Sanderson’s girlfriend’s attempts to seduce him. He rages at a television report on Richard Nixon, “Black is a very dark shade of white? Well thank you Mr Nixon. How can you lie for a living?” – but remains personally inconsistent to the end of the film.
There are a lot of things against The Rum Diary as a film. Its plot meanders between incoherent moments of intense action, interspersed with extreme profanity and cheap shots at Jesus that masquerade as profound insights. Yet probably the most unforgivable of its faults is to suggest that personal indulgence somehow qualifies as rebellion against everything that’s wrong with this world. Quite the opposite is true: personal indulgence is what’s wrong with this world.