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Two hours have rarely felt like two or three times that length as consistently as they do during Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It’s hard to completely write off the film as a total loss, but only just barely so. Terry Gilliam can craft a visually arresting sequence with tremendous ease, but he doesn’t always attach a reason for that visual’s existence. And Fear & Loathing is nothing but that – a string of visuals with no rhyme or reason for their existence with no development in story, character or interest in any of the mechanics of a successful narrative. So what we’re left with is a film that plods along repeating the basic conceit that we see in the very beginning – our characters get very high, hallucinate some weird shit, get into trouble, get out of trouble, move on to the next location, repeat for two incredibly long hours that become an exercise in tedium.
Much of the interest generated in the film is from rubbernecking at random bit parts played by a host of stars – Ellen Barkin, Camerona Diaz, Tobey Maguire, Gary Busey, Flea, Mark Harmon, Katherine Helmond, Lyle Lovett, Christina Ricci and Michael Jeter all have small parts which range from glorified cameos to minor supporting roles. It does become a little bit like “Spot the star” as we amble from one scenario to the next, but it is interesting debating about who is going to show up next and what they’ll be doing. It’s a pity that pretty much all of them are wasted though, with the lone exception possibly being Barkin in a horrifying scene late in the film in which the drugs come down and the violence goes up.
The only other thing of interest, and the lone reason why the film manages to stick together and not come ripping apart into a million pieces, is Johnny Depp’s central performance. Often giving a one-man show, or acting off a barely recognizable Benicio Del Toro, Depp forsakes vanity to appear frequently balding, bug-eyed and with a lizard tail. It’s a strange performance, even on the bell curve of strange Depp performances. But it’s also a reminder of how exciting and original an actor he is that this offbeat character is played by the same man who gave such soul to Edward Scissorhands. Now that is range.
I cannot in good conscious recommend this film for many reasons beyond Depp’s performance, some of Gilliam’s visuals and the parade of random cameos from big name stars. Outside of these three things, Fear & Loathing is a film that goes nowhere slowly, content to just mumble to itself and walk in circles without bothering to develop the characters beyond our initial introduction to them or give a reason for the insanity. Unlike, say, Trainspotting or Requiem for a Dream, it crafts realistic drug-induced imagery but doesn’t give it an aim or a purpose. There is no “why” to any of this, but if you’ve got two hours to spare and are a big fan of either Depp or Gilliam, I suppose there are worse films to watch?
