Johnny Depp’s most recent flick to hit the DVD scene might be a little off most people’s radar.

That’s because any movie based on the frenetic gonzo-journalistic writings of Hunter S. Thompson will invariably fly towards left field.

The Rum Diary is Thompson’s ‘lost novel’, written at age 22 in the early 1960s after a stint working for a newspaper in Puerto Rico. After being rejected by various book book publishers, Thompson shelved it until it was finally printed in 1998.

Johnny Depp, who established a close relationship with Thompson in the years before his death, plays Paul Kemp — a journalist of no particular talent looking to escape Eisenhower’s 1950s America by bringing himself and his drinking problem to the Caribbean.

There, he finds a daily newspaper on its last legs, supported by a staff of maniacal writers and photographers in whose company even he looks good.

After finding himself assigned to a series of stories on San Juan’s bowling alleys, Kemp’s attention wanders to the plight of the impoverished local inhabitants on the island, forcing him to confront the ugliness of American colonialism and the vile behaviour of the American expats with whom he associates.

Simultaneously, Kemp is wooed for his writing services by a powerful real estate broker (played by Aaron Eckhart) with plans to develop a beachfront resort. Kemp strikes up an inappropriate friendship with the man’s gorgeous and unhappy wife and bumbles his way through a wild, drunken Caribbean adventure that puts his values and principles to the test.

As a period piece, The Rum Diary is a interesting collection of Thompson’s astute observations about a certain time and place in the world, before Vietnam and the politics of the 1960s would draw the writer’s attention’s elsewhere.

As a story, it’s nothing particularly groundbreaking, though it’s lush enough in its period details and pacing to keep you interested. Frequently funny, Depp is well-supported by a great cast, including Giovanni Riblisi and Michael Rispoli, and a great vision for how the film should look. If there is anything lacking here it is in the source material. Fans of Thompson’s work will recognize his handiwork throughout, while those expecting another Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas will ultimately be unsatisfied.