Road-trippers follow the signals in ‘Round Trip’

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It’s an old formula. Throw together two feisty characters from different sides of life’s tracks and let the sparks fly. It might be an old strategy but it still works, as demonstrated by ‘Viaje Redondo’ (‘Round Trip’), Mexican director Gerardo Tort‘s road-trip chick flick currently competing at the Guadalajara International Film Festival for best Mexican feature film.

Tort chose two virtual unknowns to play the leads in the movie, although it’s unlikely that either Cassandra Ciangherotti (Fer) or Teresa Ruiz (Lucia) will remain in the shadows for much longer after their performances.

Fer and Lucia are thrown together at a service station after Fer, a skinny, middle-class hippie chick from Mexico City, accuses Lucia of stealing her wallet.

Lucia is what here in Mexico would be called ruda. A single, teenage mom brought up in the working-class neighborhood of Acapulco, she’s not impressed by Fer’s class-based assumptions, nor her yin-and-yang musings and references to ‘spiritual energies.’

But fate has plans for the two girls, who are both on their way to track down their various love interests. After Fer’s car breaks down they’re forced to spend two nights together, during which they break down each other’s pretenses and barriers, baring themselves in, yes, you’ve guessed it, more ways than one.

There’s a rather predictable girl-on-girl love scene toward the end of the movie. Not only was it completely out of character, especially for the working-class, conservative, Virgin-of-Guadalupe-loving Lucia, but it didn’t contribute to the story in any way. It feels almost like the scene was thrown in there because the two girls are so young and pretty -- well, it’d be a shame not to see them kissing, right?

Wrong.

But that aside, the narrative holds together well and the viewer can’t help but develop a fondness for both Fer and Lucia in their separate searches for true love.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City