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6.1/10
108K
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American journalist Paul Kemp takes on a freelance job in Puerto Rico for a local newspaper during the 1960s and struggles to find a balance between island culture and the expatriates who li... Read allAmerican journalist Paul Kemp takes on a freelance job in Puerto Rico for a local newspaper during the 1960s and struggles to find a balance between island culture and the expatriates who live there.American journalist Paul Kemp takes on a freelance job in Puerto Rico for a local newspaper during the 1960s and struggles to find a balance between island culture and the expatriates who live there.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 4 nominations
Julio Ramos Velez
- Intruder
- (as Julio Ramos)
Rafael Alvarez
- Taxi Driver
- (as Rafa Alvarez)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJohnny Depp and ex-wife Amber Heard first met while making this film. They became a couple in 2012 after Depp separated from his longtime girlfriend Vanessa Paradis, were married in February 2015, separated in May 2016 and officially divorced in January 2017, after a very public court battle, which was reignited in 2019 when Depp sued Heard for defamation.
- GoofsWhen Kemp drives the Corvette along the coast, as the camera pans the car and roadway from above, a cellular telephone tower appears in the shot.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #20.16 (2011)
- SoundtracksVolare (Nel Blu Dipinto De Blue)
Written by Domenico Modugno, Franco Migliacci and Mitchell Parish
Performed by Dean Martin
Courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music
Featured review
Great scenes, great setting, decent story, mediocre direction...
Rum Diary (2011)
If you're looking for the craziness of later Hunter S. Thompson, you'll find shreds of it here. In a way this is a more cogent movie than say "Fear and Loathing " but it's also a bit prosaic beneath the wilder stuff that peppers the surface. Johnny Depp stars and runs the show in his usual strong if uninspired way as a new, hard-drinking reporter with a failing English language newspaper in Puerto Rico.
There is a true surface here that's pretty amazing--the cars, the low down rot of the apartments, the racism between the rich white Americans and the indigenous Puerto Ricans. The depth you might expect and want here is slim, however, even though all the pieces are in play for a great drama--a charming troubled writer in a land filled with prejudice and violence and great natural beauty. It pushes the clichés too hard, and it's generally agreed (even by Thompson) that the material is weak and "rambling." The movie doesn't rearrange it enough to make it work.
You can in a way watch this for those surfaces, if you don't need too much more. There are several secondary characters who do their best to be a bit insane, including Giovanni Ribisi as a drugged out waif of a reporter, something like what Thompson himself might have become later in life. (See of course the Depp in the imperfect 1998 "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" for a sense of the famous freewheeling selfish addled sometimes brilliant Thompson.)
The director here also adapted Thompson's book and if he gets the credit for the nice ambiance of the film he also gets the burden of how clunky, choppy, and sometimes slow it is, even with such exciting material. It's not a horror, it's watchable, but you'll flag here and there. Even the end, without giving a thing away, is a bit deflating.
If you're looking for the craziness of later Hunter S. Thompson, you'll find shreds of it here. In a way this is a more cogent movie than say "Fear and Loathing " but it's also a bit prosaic beneath the wilder stuff that peppers the surface. Johnny Depp stars and runs the show in his usual strong if uninspired way as a new, hard-drinking reporter with a failing English language newspaper in Puerto Rico.
There is a true surface here that's pretty amazing--the cars, the low down rot of the apartments, the racism between the rich white Americans and the indigenous Puerto Ricans. The depth you might expect and want here is slim, however, even though all the pieces are in play for a great drama--a charming troubled writer in a land filled with prejudice and violence and great natural beauty. It pushes the clichés too hard, and it's generally agreed (even by Thompson) that the material is weak and "rambling." The movie doesn't rearrange it enough to make it work.
You can in a way watch this for those surfaces, if you don't need too much more. There are several secondary characters who do their best to be a bit insane, including Giovanni Ribisi as a drugged out waif of a reporter, something like what Thompson himself might have become later in life. (See of course the Depp in the imperfect 1998 "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" for a sense of the famous freewheeling selfish addled sometimes brilliant Thompson.)
The director here also adapted Thompson's book and if he gets the credit for the nice ambiance of the film he also gets the burden of how clunky, choppy, and sometimes slow it is, even with such exciting material. It's not a horror, it's watchable, but you'll flag here and there. Even the end, without giving a thing away, is a bit deflating.
helpful•488
- secondtake
- Jun 30, 2012
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary
- Filming locations
- Vega Baja, Puerto Rico(Cockfight scenes)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $45,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $13,109,815
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $5,135,369
- Oct 30, 2011
- Gross worldwide
- $30,134,958
- Runtime1 hour 59 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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