The Motorcycle Diaries film review

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THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

In 1952, Ernesto Guevara and his friend Alberto Grenada set off on a three-month trip from their native Buenos Aires to discover what lay unknown to them on the vast continent of South America. Walter Salles' (Central Station) absorbing new film tells the story of the trip, one which would eventually shape part of the political landscape of the twentieth century.

According to Salles' film, based on Grenada's writings about the event, Guevara was an unpoliticised 23-year-old when the journey began, simply taking a break for his studies to be a doctor in Argentina. Both travellers were from middle class backgrounds, and indeed Guevara's girlfriend of the time came from an extremely wealthy family. The trip began as any other of its kind, with the two youngsters setting out to discover the beauty of the their native continent.

But as the journey continues, Guevara's political feelings are awakened by the people he encounters along the way. Most of them - regardless of country - are after the same thing: work. All of them complain about their predicaments at the hands of ruthless bosses and owners who treat them as little more than slaves. By the time the two complete their travels, and end up in a Brazilian leprosy hospital, it's clear that Che has changed from being a studious young man into a proto-revolutionary.

If all of this sounds a little heavy-going, one of the joys of the film is the humour which is never far from the surface. This is thanks to the script and the wonderful interplay between Gael Garcia Bernal as Che and Rodrigo de la Serna as his friend Alberto. They soon run out of money and come up with all sorts of scams to get food in the next town, they rely on a temperamental motorbike that threatens to give up the ghost at any moment, and their impish charm is more than enough to seduce the prettiest girl or even wife in each new village they come to.

Touted as the next Mexican superstar after his roles in Y Tu Mama Tambien and Almodover's Bad Education, Bernal delivers an electric performance and perfectly captures the changes his character undergoes. De la Serna plays off this wonderfully, coming up with a slew of harebrained schemes to get the duo out of trouble. It's also an astonishingly beautiful film to look at, with the frozen mountains of Chile, Peru's Machu Picchu and Brazil's abundant rainforests all photographed in their resplendent glory.