The Motorcycle Diaries is an honest and touching film about a young Argentinean's physical - and spiritual - journey that forges his character as a future revolutionary.

Ernesto Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal) sets off with his best friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna) with the intention of travelling a 5,000-mile journey on his rickety motorcycle.

Their original intention is to see the entire continent, from Buenos Aires to Venezuela, via the Andes, Chile and Peru, but Ernesto's experiences along the way are to change his life forever and the budding revolutionary, later known as Che Guevara, becomes increasingly evident as events progress.

The upper-middle-class Ernesto is deeply angered by the poverty that he sees among tenants who have been thrown off their farms by wealthy landowners and indigenous peoples who have to fend for themselves by picking fruit or other menial labour.

His bond with the poor and lowly is deepened during his visit to the leper colony, where Ernesto is taken aback at the rules and the regulations of the nuns who serve as nurses and caretakers at the place. Ernesto rebels and forges strong friendships with the sufferers.

This film is incredibly watchable - with some magnificent scenery - but in parts is over-sentimental and not quite believable.

CS