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"With Johnny Depp&amp;apos;s history of chameleon acting and his dear late friend Hunter S. Thompson&amp;apos;s machine-gun writing style, we should have had a hit on our hands with The Rum Diary. Sadly, this is not the case. Rather, we get something that borders on cute and mediocre. The whole thing is meek and needs more punch, falling flat in telling a hugely interesting and compelling story.\nThe uninspired plot tells of journalist Paul Kemp (Depp), who in 1960 goes to work a freelance job for a local newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that has fallen into cahoots with a sleazy planning and development scam. Mostly, though, this is a very loose collection of drug-and-alcohol-fueled mishaps as we watch Kemp struggle with corrupt business dealings, romance and heavy drinking.\nIn reality, Thompson had unsuccessfully applied to work at the larger English-language daily while in Puerto Rico, befriending many of the writers there and providing the context for The Rum Diary&amp;apos;s fictional storyline. It wasn&amp;apos;t until he and Depp came upon the novel in an old box that it was published in 1998. I read the book a few years back and found it pretty engaging, with rebellious insight and tons of humor."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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