The Rum Diary tells the increasingly unhinged story of itinerant journalist Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp). Tired of the noise and madness of New York and the crushing conventions of late Eisenhower-era America, Kemp travels to the pristine island of Puerto Rico to write for a local San Juan newspaper run by the downtrodden editor Lotterman (Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins).
Adopting the rum-soaked lifestyle of the late ‘50s version of Ernest Hemingway’s The Lost Generation, Paul soon becomes entangled with a very attractive American woman, Chenault (Amber Heard) and her fiancée Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart), a businessman involved in shady property development deals.
It is within this world that Kemp ultimately discovers his true voice as a writer and integrity as a man.
