The Motorcycle Diaries

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (2004) - Nov. 13, 2004
The Motorcycle diaries starts off well enough. About a couple of friends who decide to go on a road trip on a dilapidated old motorcycle -- one of whom happens to be Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The two main performances are really good and we certainly come to like Che and his buddy. However, at around the one-hour mark the film becomes increasingly heavy-handed, intent on showing us how Che became Che. The two run into one downtrodden worker after another, and after a while it's like, enough already. Jeez, we get it. The film does everything short of showing us Che flipping through the Communist Manifesto and nodding approvingly. The film ran over two hours and by the end I was quite happy for it to be over. Which is too bad because the first half was really good. **1/2