The Rum Diary

The Actor-brad Pitt includes a drink with Aaron Eckhart within the Rum Diary. A FilmDistrict discharge of an Infinitum Nihil, GK Films production. Created by The Actor-brad Pitt, Christi Dembrowski, Anthony Rhulen, Robert Kravis, Graham King, Tim Headington. Executive producers, Patrick McCormick, George Tobia, Bill Shively, A.J. Dix, Greg Shapiro, Colin Vaines. Co-producer, Peter Kohn. Directed, compiled by Bruce Robinson, in line with the novel by Hunter S. Thompson.Kemp - The Actor-brad Pitt Sanderson - Aaron Eckhart Sala - Michael Rispoli Chenault - Amber Heard Lotterman - Richard Jenkins Moburg - Giovanni Ribisi"Practically nothing moderately," states the tagline for "The Rum Diary," and The Actor-brad Pitt lives as much as it through getting sloshed for that better a part of two hrs. Yet temperance of the different sort, a willful abstention from trippy stylistic excess, is the reason why this 1960-set Caribbean picaresque easily probably the most lucid screen adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's work, even when will still be several drafts shy of the fully developed yarn. More powerful on dreamy, seedy atmosphere than you are on narrative coherence, FilmDistrict's exotic curio should draw the overlapping Depp/Thompson fanbases and often will command general auds in, well, moderation. Thompson is at his early 20s when he authored his semi-autobiographical second novel about hard-nosed American newspapermen consuming, messing and from time to time writing among the social upheaval recently-'50s Puerto Rico. The manuscript went unregistered for pretty much 4 decades prior to being finally excavated (with Depp's help) and printed in 1998, providing the public an uncommon dispatch in the author's pre-gonzo years though recognizably Thompson in the first-person account of lust, lucre and liquor, "The Rum Diary" basically suggested in the heavy drug abuse and reckless clouding of fact and fiction that will define his style. By dint of their source material, then, author-director Bruce Robinson's lengthy-aborning screen version never devolves right into a catalog of strongly stupid acidity-trip behavior a la 1998's "Fear and Loathing in Vegas" this might dissatisfy extreme Thompson buffs and often will make "Diary" much more palatable for any wider viewership. The main similarity between your two photos is the fact that both star Depp like a substance-mistreating scribe who can't appear to manage his vices or remain on assignment within an unfamiliar atmosphere. It's 1960 in San Juan, an exotic shark tank where U.S. business interests run rampant, the local people harbor bitter anti-American sentiment and also the 4th estate occupies the cheapest, filthiest rung from the social ladder. Paul Kemp (Depp) just showed up to work on the San Juan Star, run with a cantankerous editor (Richard Jenkins), who takes one take a look at Kemp's bloodshot eyes and alerts him to put from the liquor. Body fat chance, as long as Kemp is moving using the colorful likes of world-weary digital photographer Sala (Michael Rispoli) and wild eccentric Moburg (Giovanni Ribisi), who likes to test out drugs and pay attention to old tracks of Hitler's speeches. Early passages particularly are notable for his or her bracingly sharp, tangy dialogue, a lot of that is written on your own fans of Robinson's all-too-infrequent work ("Withnail and that i,Inch "Jennifer Eight") will recognize and relish the literate sensibility at play here. The scribe-helmer also offers proficiently reshuffled and consolidated figures in the book, getting rid of one major character and handing a prominent role to Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart), a suave, well-heeled American businessman who brings Kemp into his group of friends. Wishing to elicit favorable copy in regards to a shady real-estate deal, Sanderson dangles numerous gifts before Kemp, probably the most enticing being their own g.f., Chenault (Amber Heard, lately of NBC's "The Playboy Club"). An arrestingly foxy vision in whitened bikini and red-colored lipstick, Heard drives a couple of the picture's most indelible sequences: one out of which Kemp and Chenault take Sanderson's Corvettes for any spin, and the other where the girl manages to lose herself among a writhing tangle of physiques on the party area. Lurching from all of these moments of pulse-quickening eroticism to Kemp and Sala's unmanageable misadventures, "The Rum Diary" executes its tonal backflips using the woozy sophistication of the amiable drunkard. Thankfully, there's just one obligatory scene of psychotropic hallucination, as well as in this fairly restrained context, its grotesquerie is nearly exquisite. Conjuring a sweaty, sordid atmosphere through d.p. Dariusz Wolski's Super 16 lensing and employ of mostly sun light, the film in general is better appreciated like a succession of highly made emotions, plenty stimulating within the moment but rarely coalescing into something greater. The novel, though similarly ragged, occured together by Thompson's tough vision of the harsh, lawless Puerto Rico succumbing towards the West's parasitic influence what little of the causes it to be onscreen continues to be soft-pedaled, its fearsome violence reduced to the stage of the hangover. Robinson tries to elevate Kemp's moral stature by molding him into an avatar of stick-it-to-the-Guy justice, a muckraking pen wielded against society's "bastards," based on the film's closing dedication to Thompson. But this goal is frustrated, remarkably, through the casting of Depp, who, though among the project's driving forces, appears strangely unfocused and disengaged inside a role that he's a minimum of two decades too old the thesp gave an infinitely more flavorsome, gonzo-esque turn like a cartoon lizard within this year's "Rango." Supporting stars skillfully get a lot of the slack. Eckhart and Jenkins are perfectly cast Ribisi, inside a amusing live-wire perf, is sort of a drug that may be counted onto deliver a ferocious jolt and Rispoli spends his cynical shutterbug having a rewarding emotional undercurrent. Production designer Craig Seagers is applicable subtle '60s touches to Puerto Rico's sun-kissed outside and grotty inside, an impact furthered by Colleen Atwood's retro costumes. The jazzy, flowing tempos of Christopher Young's score give a constantly sultry backbeat.Camera (Luxurious color, Super 16), Dariusz Wolski editor, Carol Littleton music, Christopher Youthful production designer, Chris Seagers art director, Beginning Swiderski set designers, A. Todd Holland, Luis Lopez Baquero, Enid Soto Mendez set decorator, Rosemary oil Brandenburg costume designer, Colleen Atwood seem (Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS), Edward Tise supervisory seem editors, Mark Mangini, Curt Schulkey re-recording mixer, John Ross effects supervisor, Kevin Harris visual effects supervisor, Bill Gilman visual effects, Furious Forex stunt coordinator, George Aguilar assistant director, Peter Kohn casting, Denise Chamian. Examined at Aidikoff screening room, Beverly Hillsides, March. 4, 2011. (In Hamptons Film Festival -- Spotlight.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 119 MIN.With: Amaury Nolasco, Marshall Bell, Bill Smitrovich. Contact Justin Chang at justin.chang@variety.com