Let’s start off by saying I am not a huge fan of Hunter S Thompson.  He may be a great writer but I just can’t stand people who stand up and advocate for the joys of drug use.  I didn’t like the other Johnny Depp Thompson film Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, just didn’t do anything for me.  So I was not too excited to watch The Rum Diary, fearing it might just be more of the same.  Thankfully, it really wasn’t.

Paul Kemp (Depp) is a freelance journalist who has just taken a job writing for a small newspaper in Puerto Rico in the 1950s.  Once there, Kemp meets a motley group of people working for the barely in operation publication.  Editor Lotterman (Richard Jenkins) has given up hope of the failing paper ever surviving and wears a terrible hairpiece.  Moberg (Giovanni Ribisi) is the alcoholic and possibly psychotic writer that is usually missing in action.  But Kemp does befriend Sala (Michael Rispoli) and they embark on an adventure to expose a wheeler dealer named Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart) who wants to overtake the island with expensive hotels.  Then there is Sanderson’s girlfriend Chenault (Amber Heard) who is immediately taken with Kemp.  With Kemp being the fish out of water on the island it is inevitable that he will make just as many new enemies as friends.  When asked to write a piece supporting Sanderson’s plans, Kemp must decide if he will join the power elite or stick to his journalistic integrity and maybe lose everything.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by The Rum Diary.  Depp was great as usual playing Kemp as a lost soul in search of a mission to redeem his journalistic spirit.  The pace and style of the movie is just as laid back as life on the island.  The pace is casual and leisurely and the story is really more along the lines of a ‘day in the life of’ movie more so than a cohesive story arc.  But it all works very well as you get to really know the characters and their flaws and strengths.  I was particularly taken with Michael Rispoli as Sala.  I have seen Rispoli in many other films in supporting roles and always liked him.  Most notable were the films While You Were Sleeping and Summer of Sam.  He is always memorable, but in The Rum Diary he really steals the show.  At the start of the film I was wary of the direction of the story but by the end of the film I was quite fond of the characters I had met along the way.

The Blu-ray from eOne is nice indeed.  The Puerto Rico locations are beautifully rendered here while the whole movie is very cinematic with a nice natural grain.  Without affecting the picture, the whole movie is given a slight hazy feel, which feels right in a film where everyone is drunk most of the time.  Detail is very nice in the people and landscapes and colors are solid and natural.  Overall, a very nice transfer and a great looking movie.  I was wary of travelling back into the world of Hunter S Thompson, but I am glad I did.  The characters are well worth visiting with and will continue to be memorable after the credits roll.  Recommended.