The Rum Diary

Warning: Spoilers

Every once in a while I see a movie that inspires me to find out more about a character, if biographical, or the original writer of the book version, if one exists. The Rum Diary indeed is a book by Hunter S. Thompson, someone whose name has been familiar as a legend for a long time, but who I never really knew anything about. The only thing I knew about him was that he wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and used LSD. I had seen Fear and Loathing, love Johnny Depp, and so was intrigued with another Thompson/Depp combination.

There are many things I liked about this movie, but the main thing is that it is not so Hollywood-formula as many movies these days are. I think that must be because of the original story. It does have some of those elements, such as girl-with-wrong-guy-then-meets-right guy, but for the most part it is a darkly humorous story with some hints of bizarre in it.

Depp's character, Paul Kemp, is an unsuccessful writer who journeys to Puerto Rico for a bread-and-butter job at a failing newspaper. His drinking problem means that he is stumbling through life, both literally and figuratively, and waiting for luck and happenstance to get him by instead of being motivated. Nothing is inspiring him until he serendipitously gets mixed up with a group of rich developers who scam the residents and launder money to make their fortunes. Enter Sanderson, played by Aaron Eckhart (who seems to be typecast as the evil guy) and his Barbie-like fiance Chenault, the beautiful people living the high life at the expense of the native people of Puerto Rico. One of Sanderson's pet peaves is when the residents look in on HIS private beach and what he and his friends are doing. He's rich, he's an asshole, and arranges for Kemp to be indebted to him and become involved in one of his scams as a promotional writer. But Chenault has a conscious and is bored with her lily-white lifestyle. When she and Kemp meet it is instant sparks. And as Kemp is getting sucked deeper into the quagmire of Sanderson's plans, a blowout between Sanderson and the natives over Chenault's acting out her desire for a different life leads to the break up of their business deal.

Here's where the inspiration comes from. There are a couple of epiphanies in the story, Chenaults realization that she doesn't want the slimy good life, and Kemp's inspiration to write about the insidious rape of native peoples' land to get rich. Kemp states that “I’ve discovered the connection between starving children scavenging for food, and the shiny brass plates on the front doors of banks.” It's one of those lines where you say, “Ah, that must be from the original author.”

The movie is sprinkled with colorful supporting characters and lines. Moburg, brilliantly played by Giovanni Ribisi, is a drunk of the DT variety, and a roommate of Kemp's, who constantly makes scenes and has a bizarre taste for listening to Hitler speeches on LPs. He's the kind of character that you laugh at but inside feel pity and disgust for. And one of my favorite lines in the movie was stated by the Mayor during a casual conversation at a Sanders party for his business friends: 'A liberal is a Commie with a college education thinking Negro thoughts.' It was a reminder of a past time, reminiscent of Archie Bunker.

So, I would give this move two thumbs up. I decided to not look at any reviews before writing this because I didn't want to chance that they would influence my impression of the movie, one being that much of Kemp's character must be biographical of Thompson. I will have to find out how true that is. I am intrigued and have some reading to do. I think I'll start with The Rum Diary.