The Rum Diary is one film that pays for the audience to know a little something about the author of the novel that inspired it going in. I’m not the least bit versed in Hunter S. Thompson’s work and aside from Terry Gilliam’s mind melting film don’t claim to know the first thing about Gonzo. Compared to what Gilliam showed us in Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, The Rum Diary is nothing close that trip-tastic odyssey as this story is about Thompson (through his fictitious character Kemp) finding the method that would become his madness.