It's The Journey
The Rum Diary is based on Hunter S. Thompson's novel of the same name. The book is a fictionalized account of Thompson's time in Puerto Rico or maybe not, either way the Rum Diary is a pretty wild ride and a lot fun. I'll say right up front that there's been a lot of mixed reviews on this film. It seems either people hate it or love it. For my two cents I have to say I enjoyed the movie quite a lot and found my self laughing fairly hard and fairly regularly. I have not read the book so that might be why I liked it where others did not, but in reality no movie is ever as good as the book. Of course Depp's acting as Kemp is superb giving us a stellar performance as a reporter who is a washed up and at the end of the line, but is still larger than life in his flaws. Giovanni Ribisi makes an amazing and stand out performance as Moberg an individual so far over the edge and so far in the gutter that he's almost prophetic in his observations. Michael Rispoli also excels in playing, Sala, a jaded photographer who's fed up, and just waiting for it all to go to hell. The story, well, you can watch the movie to get that. In my opinion what is much more important is the characters and the personalities of Thompson's characters and how they live passionately, recklessly and in the moment. In that I found the movie to be very true to the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson. As they say, "It's the journey, not the destination." I do think as a film the main story could of had more depth when it came to the other characters and the resolution of the plot. I felt I didn't get to know the other characters very well and that the end of the movie could of had more oomph, but I still don't think those two issues bring the movie down. All in all it's very much worth watching and just hedges into my favorite movies selection.