Reflection on The Rum Diaries.

            Well, where can we start? At first I was briefly astounded by the current situation of the protagonist Kemp (Johnny Depp), where he was in a “tight spot” as we call it. I say this because he woke up in a hotel as hungover as one can imagine, drinking all of the alcohol that was in the beverage fridge in his hotel room. As soon as I saw this scene, I thought the whole movie was going to be very crazy. And indeed it was. A lot of scenes involved violence and corruption, as well as poverty and richness (in terms of capita). The whole movie is about this New York Times writer/columnist that is offered a job in a very mediocre Newspaper Publicist Firm called the San Juan Star, that was at the momento was the paper of preference for the local community. The setting is in San Juan, Puerto rico in the 1960’s.

            When this journalist (Paul Kemp) progresses at his freelance job in Puerto Rico, he struggles to find a balance between the local culture and the external influences faced upon the island. He is accompanied by many friends, some more delisional than others. One can see in the film the margin planted by capitalism in social clases, the gap is extremely noticable. There are poor and rich antagonists in the movie, the poor ones are the “mates” Paul Kemp meets and the rich ones are the ones that offer Kemp a great amount of money for his services, concerning the spread of controlled information.

            The plot of the film is quite fascinating. The poor and misleaded come to an agreement to rise against the bankrupcy of the newspaper and publish one last paper for the sake of their dignity, which they are not able to achieve. The protagonist (Paul Kemp) felt in love with one of his rich friend’s girlfriend. They had a blast, and had many problems thanks to her, but he did defend her at the end, giving her asylum when she was lost in the small island. Overall I enjoyed the movie, I could sense a lot of dark humor in the film and that cought my attention. In relation to the puerto rican image portrayed in the film, it is very true. They portray the puerto rican community exactly how it was at the time.