Regulars
FILM REVIEW

April 2005

The Motorcycle Diaries

Director: Walter Salles

Stars: Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, Mia Maestro

Certificate: 15

Country: Argentina/Chile/Peru/US

Year: 2004

Rating: four and a half stars

The choice for the opening night gala at the 2004 Edinburgh International Film Festival is a splendid road movie/coming-of-age tale.
Two relatively young men, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a 23-year-old medical student and Alberto Granado, a 29-year-old, choose to travel across countries and continents to assist in a leper colony. The story has been adapted from a journal written by the young Ernesto at the time, before he embraced communism and joined in the Cuban Revolution.

The film stops short before this happens and, as such, feels somewhat incomplete, in that we feel manipulated into supporting the character without realising his motivations. We are told what happens, and yet we only see faint hints at the values which might lead to his political choices.

Director Walter Salles elects to use montage as a means of internal storytelling, in cutting black-and-white elements to show the oppressed peoples in Che's mind. He continues throughout the picture to use editing to contrast our thoughts at given moments, mostly for comic impact.

The diaries begin with the 22-year-old, ironically titled "Mighty One" motorcycle, which before long becomes somewhat useless to the travellers. A choice to chapterise the story into several segments, or each of the different countries that they cross, lends the film some interesting dynamics, both cinematographically and through the mood of the events and actors. The two central characters bounce off each other verbally and politically. Che's uncompromising honesty is his defining characteristic, while Granado merely wants to recapture much of his youth. Observe the broad strokes that the screenplay paints and the subtlety of Gael Garcia Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna's performances. Theirs is a splendid example of screen-commanding acting.

The film has been directed with simplicity in mind. Salles's straightforward approach allows the characters to deepen, while exercising restraint - five minutes of exposition is all we need to start the journey! - ensuring that the narrative does not drag.

Indeed, there's an awful lot to recommend, in particular the longest segment in Peru. Just watch Che change through the journey, look at the lusciously photographed unspoiled landscapes and the time that we share at the colony.

Indeed, there is so much food for the soul that I found myself quietly smiling in admiration for a simple story, well told.

 

Million Dollar Baby

Director: Clint Eastwood

Stars: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman

Certificate: 12A

Country: US

Year: 2004

Rating: five stars

Clint Eastwood is one of the best American directors working today. His films are concise, powerful, frequently passionate and almost effortless. Some of them don't quite work, but there's a winning power to him. He shuns budgets and makes films about pained people. Those in Million Dollar Baby are faultlessly characterised and live in our hearts and minds.

Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) is a boxing trainer, who runs a gym that only just breaks even. His past is clouded, but he refuses to compromise with his fighters, until he believes they are ready, and doesn't like taking risks with them.

Maggie Fitzpatrick (Hilary Swank) walks in with a dream of escaping from mediocrity and insists that he train her, as one of his fighters. "Scrap" (Morgan Freeman - an excellent counterpoint to Eastwood's world weary cynicism) narrates the story in a letter to Frankie's estranged daughter, echoing his prior work in The Shawshank Redemption. To quote his description of Maggie: "She grew up knowing one thing - she was trash."

Frankie refuses to train her, yet, due to her determination, toughness and heart, as well as the gym's troubled cash flow problem, eventually takes her under his wing.

Million Dollar Baby's central plot could have been written and directed by Frank Capra in the Forties, but rare is the film that takes soap opera ideas and delivers a treasure. The characters are what make the film so immeasurably successful.

Frankie is revealed early to be a smart ass to his local priest, only for the audience to find out later how it counterpoints his responsibility as Maggie's friend and true family. This is about how people deal with guilt, through self-attrition.

Skilled and economical storytelling delivers a mighty wallop in getting through a lot of exposition in a short time, constructing little moments, like how an actor changes expression by just using their eyes, or the fashion in which they are lit, framed and photographed, or smartly edited montages, using movement and timing to show progression.

Even characters that don't get much screen time, like Maggie's trailer park family, explain an awful lot. The way they use their cruel language to open up her concealed wounds explains as much as any lengthy discourse between Frankie and Maggie and demonstrates Eastwood's efficiency as a director, scraping away surface niceties until the story is bare.

The idea that Eastwood embodies his work and speaks through his own voice is something that endears his films to me, as though I know him better that way. This time he has crafted an impeccable film, which essentially lays down the gauntlet.

His films have been consistently improving, now that he has no wish to prove anything to anyone. They have a richness and texture that I find as beguiling as it is brilliant. There are no false notes, no dull sentimentality, as he leads his characters to their logical, difficult conclusions.

I have seen too many films that could have been great, instead of good, because they are diluted by weak endings, due to producers not having the guts to deal with their issues. Thankfully, Eastwood's pull at Warner gave him the clout to make the film the way he wanted, even if he had to find half the money himself.

A trio of absolutely smashing performances, hard-boiled and bonded by respect, given and taken in the boxing ring, adds strength in depth. This is a film with secrets, with faith in old-fashioned storytelling, that invites us to share in human conflict, humour, character and success.