The Rum Diary

The Rum Diary is not what one might imagine from the title, it’s not a two-hour rager but rather a series of sober staggering home scenes that slosh up against the screen; it’s not exactly a sequel but it is the morning after Fear and Loathing’s large night out. It is then a film that will disappoint the vast majority of its audience because of their imagined intentions: there are those that will come to it because it stars Depp and they will wantonly expect him to do wacky things within it, there are those who have read either the original novel or one of Hunter S. Thompson’s other Gonzo efforts and they will be stuck in the accusatory mindset that mires all adaptations unduly, then there are those ex-college students who have seen the film version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and want another hit of drug addled action; all of them to a one will not get what they want from The Rum Diary but they may yet get something else entirely. No-one ever wants a hangover but sometimes it’s rather good that they happened.