Hunter S. Thompson’s “The Rum Diary” has finally arrived on Maui starring Johnny Depp as protagonist, Paul Kemp. Knowing the movie is here should be enough to encourage everyone to rush out and reread the novel, so do!
The book is slim enough that you can actually shoot it back in a half-day’s swallow. And that’s not because it’s a particular rip of a story but rather a solid read steeped in the stupor of Puerto Rican rum and the road to ruin for everyone involved. It’s also a bit of a shout out of what the pace of the burning tropics can do to people without money, direction, and restraint.
Hunter writes in a way that you’ll feel drunk off the vapors from the read of it… It will be interesting to see if the film does the same.
we”re going to see the movie on Friday. Looking forward to it.
Barbara K.
It’s late in the movie when Sala says to Kemp, “You’re high, have some rum”, that you come to know the characters have finally hit rock bottom. And while this scene is not in the novel (several are not and vice versa), this adaptation still captures the alcoholic asphyxia author, Hunter S. Thompson, intended.
You will laugh out loud, wish for the glamourous Puerto Rico depicted, and nod in approval of Depp’s movie-screen money move….that slightly veiled but crazed look given to the camera that says “Either you or me is about to go wildly insane here, but I’m a betting man…you will be first!”…
Depp is the true draw in this film, but others are worth noting. Michael Rispoli, for instance, as Sala is the spitting image of “Rocky Balboa’s Paulie” while Amber Heard simmers as Chenault, reminding us of Scarlett Johannson’s first appearances in film. Last but not least, is Giovani Ribisi who portraits such a desperate alcoholic that, as Moberg, a proper ending would have been for him to be found dead with his large brown jug of home-pressed liquor from pilfered filters dropped to the floor.
All in all, this Hollywood book-to-movie is one to see…but read Thompson’s version for sure because it strikes a much deeper chord.