*** (M)

Director: Steven Soderbergh.

Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Demian Bichir, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Santiago Cabrera, Franka Potente, Lou Diamond Phillips, Benjamin Benitez.

MOST people only know of Ernesto "Che" Guevara as a face on a t-shirt, so Soderbergh's two-part biopic is a fascinating yet scattershot approach to the man behind the iconic image.

Clocking in at over four hours, its a hefty, sprawling epic that doesn't even try to sum up the whole of Che's life but rather two major periods.

Part 1: The Argentine focuses on the successful overthrow of the US-backed Cuban government in the late '50s, which brought Che his initial reknown and Fidel Castro to power.

Part 2: Guerilla deals with his unsuccessful attempt to do the same in Bolivia in the late '60s, which would be his ultimate undoing.

The subject matter and performances are excellent and both films give an impressive insight into fascinating world events.

But both films suffer from similar problems, including wayward scripting and a lack of overall focus, making it hard for the audience to latch onto where the film is going.

Part 1 also suffers from a non-linear timeline that unneccessarily adds in scenes from Guevara's 1964 United Nations address, which do give some context and insight into the man and his ideologies, but are distracting and slow the film's movement.

There is also a tendency to focus on the smaller details of his day-to-day life rather than look at the bigger picture, although it must be said it's all still interesting stuff.

Holding everything together is Del Toro, who gives a commanding and well-rounded performance filled with heart, passion and truth - no surprise considering he had been circling and building this project for seven years. It must be said though that the Guevara we see in Che is perhaps overly sympathetic and has been criticised for lacking balance, but he's an intriguing guy nonetheless.

This is unlike anything we've seen Soderbergh do before, but he handles it all well, particularly the battle sequences of Part 1 and the gritty jungle warfare of Part 2.

It's a long and well-made, if flawed, journey through two of the chapters of Guevara's life (a third can be seen in the highly rated The Motorcycle Diaries), but it's worth the trip for anyone with a historical bent and thirst for knowledge.