Where the truth lies Nothing removed since the early nineties, Bruce Robinson presented the film adaptation of “Rum Diary”. And perhaps to him, as a director, it is worth sprinkling all the main claims about the presentation of the picture, the presentation of scenes and characters, the general rhythm and even the broken order of scenes, the storylines of which arise by themselves and live a life separate from the film.
Otherwise, everything seems to be fine here. Worthy casting in the title roles – charismatic Johnny Depp, in contrast and counterweight – confident and rude Aaron Eckhart, charming beauty Amber Heard, brilliantly combining her temperamental heroine from “Crazy Riding” with a pampered girl from “Informants”. What kind of secondary heroes! In fact, they even overshadow the main characters. Alkash, listening to Hitler’s speeches, a priestess-hermaphrodite of voodoo magic, a cockfighting journalist, a cynical newspaper editor, mired in lies. And, I am sure, many will not soon after viewing forget a turtle decorated with a scattering of precious stones.
And in principle, the minimum picture necessary for the entertainment of the viewer successfully performs. Depp actively plays with facial expressions, with the lethargy of his hero (wildly inferior to the character from Fear and Hate, by the way) one of his appearance often causes a smile and delight. Rare, but very accurate and successful jokes in the dialogue (the best, perhaps, was about Kennedy, although she is not only funny, but also sad ...), twice stripped (albeit briefly) beautiful Amber. There is even a spectacular (but categorically unnecessary) episode of hallucinations with a huge tongue and spectacular cockfights. But all this is so little for the total amount of screen time wasted in empty that the film does not pull to review again, and in general do not really want to recommend.
The picture is well worth a look for fans of Depp, well, or other actors and actresses filming here, but more than a watchable average here is hardly to be expected. The film has no soul, no charisma, no charm. He does not capture madness, does not entertain from the heart, does not fill with anything significant, and in general even raises seemingly important and meaningful topics very superficially.
A journalist looking for his own style, with two unpublished books behind him, sets out to find where the truth lies, and dives only into the surrounding lies. Forced to create only in white, participate in scams and other dark deeds, filled to the top with alcohol, he still tries to save the human face, do at least something good, and, in the end, make a loud finale.
But what at first sounded promising and intriguing, in fact turns out to be a sluggish tinkering with a small set of successful scenes. The picture is also full of numerous homages and references to the film “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” with the same Depp, the same Thompson, but all of them practically do not work and too organically merge into the context of this story to look like a tribute or specially squeezed hints.
And even a kind of double ending (trying to please both lovers of drama, showing instead of the next “Friends of Ocean” that not all plans are successfully implemented, and fans of sweet endings – thanks to the text of the epilogue, telling a couple of sentences about the future fate of the characters) is hardly able to change the attitude to the picture for the better. The faint staging and plot revisions, even with abundant timekeeping (full of unnecessary and empty episodes instead of real action and character development), extinguish almost the entire potential of this picture.
Rum Diary was not deprived of good moments, but still too boring and dull. You can see it, but you don’t want to watch it. And yet there are episodes and phrases in the film that should be remembered, as well as the funny Depp and the divine Amber Heard. It’s a great but interesting movie.
6 IZ 10
Original
