The Rum Diaries review: Johnny Depp and a bit of a rum do

This is a rambling comedy with enough good moments and witty lines to compensate for its messiness.

It’s based on a quasi-autobiographical novel by Hunter S. Thompson about how he found his voice as a writer, and started to feel outraged by capitalism.

As in Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Johnny Depp (pictured) plays Thompson’s alcoholic, drug-taking alter ego.

Johnny Depp in The Rum Diaries: This is a rambling comedy with enough good moments and witty lines to compensate for its messiness

Paul Kemp’s a failed author who takes over as resident astrologer at the San Juan Star  in Puerto Rico.

He becomes obsessed by the beautiful girlfriend (Amber Heard) of Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart), a shady property developer.

Sanderson wants Paul to compromise his ideals and help despoil a nearby island.

'Writer-director Bruce Robinson — still most famous for Withnail And I — is clearly in love with his anti-hero’s more rackety aspect'

The film is really the story of how Paul belatedly gets some moral fibre.

However, writer-director Bruce Robinson — still most famous for Withnail And I — is clearly in love with his anti-hero’s more rackety aspects, and his weird friendship with the even more hopeless photographer (Michael Rispoli).

The film scores highly for love of language — the line ‘Your tongue is like an accusatory giblet’ could come straight out of Withnail.

It’s odd, though, that a movie about an author finding his voice should spend nearly two hours not doing so.

Robinson is clearly more interested in our hero getting the girl and becoming politicised, which don’t amount to the same thing.