Rum Diary - Screening

An amusing, from-the-heart tribute to Hunter S Thompson before he invented Gonzo journalism. Depp plays Thompson’s alter ego (as he did in Fear and Loathing): Paul Kemp, a failed 30-year-old novelist who washes up in the office of a two-bit tourist rag in Puerto Rico. The story of drunken good times with other reprobate hacks is stoked by a run-in with a corrupt property developer and his distractingly gorgeous girlfriend. Director Bruce Robinson makes the most of the exotic locations, sweaty bars, some witty lines and rum-soaked crazy scrapes to fashion an affectionate portrait of a writer finding his feet. US, 2011, 120'. Cert 15.