The Rum Diary - Film Opening Analysis

• First shot - extreme close up of bloodshot eye. Intense, intimate and slightly grotesque. Foreshadows trouble and drama. Audience is already asking questions - how did his eye end up like this? Already hooked from the first second. Diegetic sound of an old plane is heard.
• The next shot shows a man (who we later find out to be Kemp) lying in bed in a dark hotel room - we can see it’s day outside from light behind curtains. Suggests he’s overslept for some reason - did something significant happen the night before?
• Shows mess on the floor and Kemp struggling to walk - hungover, hurt? Building fascination and intriguing the audience.
• Curtains are drawn back and we are hit with blue sky - shot reverse shot to Kemp’s face, shocked from the light and the location he finds himself in. His face looks mildly injured.
• The trail from the plane reads ‘welcome to Puerto Rico’. This tells us the location he’s in - his facial expressions show disgust and even fear. His messy, unwashed hair suggest that he has not had much sleep. The foreign setting adds to the scale of the situation - this builds on the questions being asked - how did he end up here?
• There is no soundtrack in this opening, which adds to the intimacy and gives the scene a sense of naturality.
• Scene cuts to the bathroom - further stumbling and confusion. Warm, dim, yellow light contrasts with the bright blue from outside. We hear a knock at the door.
• Close up of Kemp’s face as he opens the door a crack, still looking disgruntled and fearful. This builds tension and anxiety for the audience as we feel as if something bad is going to happen. A butler is at the door with breakfast; a few words are exchanged.
• Kemp swallows a load of pills to - we assume - cure his hangover; this builds on his character, establishing that he gets himself into troublesome situations.
• He tells the butler to ‘get out’ - shows that he’s hostile either because he’s fed up or is fearful of something/someone - building tension.
• Kemp’s head movement motivates the eyeline match shot to the fridge that lies on the floor - it has been ripped from it’s foundations - he tries to make an excuse. This conveys that Kemp is perhaps unreliable and untrustworthy as well as a troublemaker.
• He says ‘I tend to avoid alcohol… when I can.’ This reveals that he must be hungover. The end shot is a close up, which establishes that he is the protagonist of the film.