We were somewhere near the screen, at the edge of the balcony when the reel started rolling…
A controversial writer, a cult director and a famous actor trying to avoid the Hollywood image is the formula which gave birth in 1998 to one of the most memorable films of the decade, FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, a film that despite its short-comings is still blowing the minds of new generations of teenagers world over. It would seem that a film following the same formula should have similar results. The text again comes from “rock-star” writer Hunter S. Thompson, the main actor is again Johnny Depp, all that is changed is the replacement of Terry Gilliam with Bruce Robinson of WITHNAIL & I fame, another staple of drug-themed cult film with eccentric characters not content with society.
The fragmental story-line and the abundance of characters might have worked in written form but condensed into two hours we often find difficulty following the action.
Yet it is hard to imagine that 13 years from now pirated copies of THE RUM DIARY will circulate from one cinephile-to-be to the next because “dude, you just HAVE to see this film”. For all the great elements that went into it, the whole doesn’t quite live up to the sum of its parts. The blame doesn’t fall to Depp or any of the other actors (Giovanni Ribisi, Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard, Richard Jenkins), who mostly excel at and seem to genuinely enjoy their parts; the problem seem more to hinge on the story or rather on the adaptation thereof. The fragmental story-line and the abundance of characters might have worked in written form but condensed into two hours we often find difficulty following the action. There is a love-story, a story about the fight against corruption, a story about a writer finding his voice and in-between those an alcohol fuelled comedy, none of which manages to give a sense of completion.
After 19 years of retirement Robinson’s skills might have gone a bit rusty. Thankfully, his talent has not faded. Thus, even though we haven’t received the new cult film we were waiting for, we do have an overall entertaining picture, with some good laughs and quotable moments.