The Motorcycle Diaries

What a movie! And not a political film like many think.
Based on a Che Guevara's Journal, written while taken this same trip portrayed in the movie (the writing of the Journal is also shown), this an extremely well adapted story about adventures and selfdiscovery, that transformed and molded the way the two characters saw things, and what they wanted in life.

Ernesto 'Fuser' Guevara (he wasn't 'El Che' yet) and Alberto Granado are two twenty-somethings medicine students that go out on a trip through Latin America, starting in their home country of Argentina, with the goal of doing their residency in a Leper Colony in Peru. They travel of course, in their motorcycle, a 1939 Norton 500 that they call "La Poderosa" (The Mighty One).

Gael Garcia Bernal plays Ernesto, and he's very good. I had trouble with his accent for the first 40 minutes or so, basically because he's from Mexico, and if you speak Spanish (the movie is in Spanish with English subtitles), you can easily spot his trouble with the language which is very different between those from Argentina/Uruguay, and the rest of Latin America.
You mostly note the difference because of his co-star, Rodrigo De La Serna as Alberto. An excellent performance that includes some comic parts (as they're at first also in search of fun and women) and finishes, like Garcia Bernal's, very strong and dramatic.

The fun and adventures of the trip finish, as well as my problems with Garcia Bernal's accent, or any other problem I could have, once they get into the Leper Colony in San Pablo, Peru. Both actors really grow here, and you start seeing the guys discovering themselves, and what they want to do with their lives.
The sick people in the Leper Colony (which I still can't believe are actors) are helped by Ernesto and Alberto, and are the ones thanks to which the young friends grow to be the men they'll later become.
The movie hit me very hard in this part, and is this what makes you realize (in part) why Ernesto would follow the path he did. Both guys, by the end of the movie, know what they want to became, and result is history.
This movie is one of the Best of the Year and one I'll treasure for ever.