Review of The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) by Wayne K — 23 Apr 2017

The Motorcycle Diaries, or more fittingly, The Whatever Mode Of Transport Happens To Be Available At The Time Diaries, is very much a mixed bag. The direction is excellent, the performances sincere and the photography is fantastic.

It truly encapsulates what it feels like to experience your homeland and close neighbours in a way you never have before, and discovering a world hidden just below the surface which you were previously ignorant of.

Its chief flaws are in its characters, or more specifically, their depiction. Our hero Mr. Guevara is painted as one of the saintliest individuals ever seen on the big screen. He's the kind of person who, upon seeing a person in pain or financial destitution, will wander off to a cliff edge or riverside to stare dejectedly into the distance.

There's no indication that he'll soon become the violent and radical revolutionary whose likeness adorned many-a bedroom poster. Here he couldn't be any nicer if he were to wander around picking wild flowers and offering them to the elderly.

Many of the people who they run into either have little to contribute or are simply there to group together and stare awkwardly into the camera in several incongruous and downright bizarre shots. It's not paced very well and only stretches to 2+ hours became of numerous unnecessarily protracted scenes.

It's not interesting enough to be a character study and not explorative enough to be a road movie. It's mediocre at best, and isn't wholly worth the effort that must've went into it.