‘Motorcycle’ just spins wheels

TRICIA BEHLE

“The Motorcycle Diaries” is based on a real-life motorcycle trip

taken by Che Guevara, before he became a revolutionary. In 1952,

Ernesto Guevara was a young medical student from a highly educated,

loving family in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Guevara and his best

friend, Alberto Granado, a biochemist, set off on a motorcycle to

experience South America. Their trip took them across Argentina,

Chile, Peru, Columbia and Venezuela. The film is adapted from the

books written by Guevara and Granado about their journey.

With more enthusiasm than common sense, Guevara (Gael Garcia

Bernal) and Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna) persisted in their journey

despite numerous motorcycle spills and breakdowns, bad weather and an

almost constant lack of sufficient money and food. Along the way,

they met people from all levels of society and saw firsthand the

issues and problems in Latin America.

Even knowing how Guevara would end up later in life, the story and

characters are strangely flat and uninvolving. There’s a good movie

somewhere in “Diaries,” but unfortunately, director Walter Salles

didn’t quite find it. It is hard to portray idealism on screen

without it feeling hokey. There are also scenes that take up time

with no apparent purpose and scenes where a point is unclear.

The best aspect of the whole movie is that the filming appears to

have taken place at all the real locations that Guevara and Granado

visited on their trip. Lovely to look at, “The Motorcycle Diaries”

works best as a travelogue, showing the beautiful landscape of South

America.

* TRICIA BEHLE lives in Newport Beach and works as a software

validator.

Gere gives graceful performance

Anxious to see the American remake of the wonderful 1996 Japanese

hit, “Shall We Dance?” I wondered if this glossy star vehicle would

pale in comparison. Happily, it does not disappoint.

Richard Gere has always had a quiet grace about him, and it serves

him well in his role as John Clark -- a modest Chicago estate

attorney who is happily married with two children. Everything in his

life is tidy and in order. But, like his clients at the end of the

day, he finds himself asking, “Is that it?”

The answer comes to him in a most unexpected way. One day, on his

trip home on the “L,” John sees a beautiful but sad-looking woman in

the window of Miss Mitzi’s Dance Studio. Night after night the woman

is there, always the same expression. Intrigued, John impulsively

walks in and signs up for ballroom dance lessons.

To the disappointment of John and his fellow students, their

instructor will not be the ice princess Paulina (Jennifer Lopez),

whom he had seen at the window, but owner Miss Mitzi herself (Anita

Gillette). An “older woman with great legs,” Mitzi has to fortify

herself with a little nip now and then to get her through her dance

lessons with yet another group of hapless men -- self-conscious John,

gentle giant Vern and Chic, who fancies himself quite the playboy.

Paulina makes it clear that none of these men has any chance with her

outside of the studio.

Sizing all this up is fellow dancer Bobbie, dubbed “The

Bobbinator” by the guys because of her sharp tongue and formidable

hourglass figure. And there’s Link (scene-stealing Stanley Tucci),

who does a mean tango under a horrible wig, big choppers and fake

tan. John is stunned to realize this guy in the sequins is his

colleague from the law firm. There’s a very funny scene, when they

practice their steps in the men’s room at the office.

What doesn’t translate as well from the Japanese version is why

John keeps his dance lessons a secret from his devoted wife Beverly

(Susan Sarandon). We suspect at first he is interested in an affair

with Paulina, but that’s not it at all. In the 1996 movie, this was a

cultural issue -- it was not considered dignified to show joy or

passion in public, and a faithful wife would put up with her

husband’s being gone late into the night after work.

An American wife, especially as played by Sarandon, is not likely

to be so passive. It is to Gere’s credit, and writer Audrey Wells’,

that John’s explanation to Beverly about his secret life manages to

be believable and touching as well.

“Shall We Dance?” is sweetly charming and conveys the beauty and

grace of dancing -- the joy of being taken outside of your ordinary

self for a couple of hours. The actors are quite wonderful and not

bad on the dance floor. Fred and Ginger would be proud.

* SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant

for a financial services company.