Taking a road trip with a good buddy is bound to have two results: (1) your friend will get on your nerves; and (2) you will laugh more than you do at almost any other time in your life. Traveling through unfamiliar lands while spending 24/7 with another person forces you to bond with your travel companion in ways that would never happen in your regular life. The Trip (2010), like a real buddy road trip, contains very little plot but captures what a real-life adventure is like.
The Trip, originally conceived as British TV series, stars British actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon playing fictionalized versions of themselves as they set out on a road trip to northern England. After a newspaper asks Coogan to go on a journey to visit and review fancy restaurants and his girlfriend decides not to go on the trip with him, he ends up traveling with Brydon. The two drive, eat, talk, bicker, do impressions, quote Wordsworth and Coleridge, annoy each other, and laugh together on the trip. One of the highlights of the movie Tristram Shandy – A Cock and Bull Story
While a similarly themed buddy-travel-movie Sideways focused on telling a story, The Trip focuses less on plot and more on capturing the real-life experience of traveling with someone you like but who also annoys you at times. There is a story about the contrast between Brydon’s life and Coogan’s more successful career balanced by womanizing loneliness. And there are beautiful shots of food being prepared and served. But the main point of the movie is the interaction between Coogan and Brydon, often improvised, and the way they try to one-up the other and get the other to laugh. One of the highlights of the film is their impressions, including their discussion of how to imitate actor Michael Caine.
Years ago, I took a long road trip through the Western U.S. with a high school friend, and I kept thinking of that trip while watching The Trip. On my trip, my friend kept trying to explain everything we saw, showing off his knowledge. When I told him to stop, he kept insisting that he was not constantly explaining things. But then at one tourist site, I turned around and saw him explaining the actions of local animals to a few other tourists. When I caught his eye, it was a moment of amusement to both of us, and a moment of realization to him. In The Trip, there is a similar scene where after Bryson complains about Coogan acting like he knows everything, Coogan goes off and encounters another know-it-all.
Conclusion? For me, The Trip realistically captures the adventures, aggravations, and joys of traveling with a friend. If you are looking for a movie with a compelling story or well-plotted laugh lines, you should choose another movie. But if you are in the mood for a lazy aimless trip with a couple of annoying companions who will make you laugh, then check out The Trip, which is now available on DVD
{Missed Movies is our continuing series on good films you might have missed because they did not receive the recognition they deserved when released.}
The director of ‘The Trip’, Michael Winterbottom, definitely seems to make good films with Steve Coogan. Their collaboration on the life of Factory Records owner Tony Wilson, ’24 Hour Party People’, is probably the best rock bio film on the ’70s Manchester post-punk music scene other than Anton Corbijn’s ‘Control’. They’re both underrated artists in a lot of ways- Winterbottom’s films vary so significantly in genre and tone (‘The Killer Inside Me’, ‘The Claim’) that he’s never settled on a distinct style and Coogan is a skilled leading comedic actor (great on ‘Saxondale’) who seems to mainly get supporting parts on film (‘Pineapple Express’, ‘The Other Guys’).
I liked ‘The Trip’, but my main issue with the film was that every time Winterbottom went for gravity (the Joy Division song, other dramatic music, Coogan’s loneliness) the film seemed to stall. I look forward to future Coogan/Winterbottom films.
I agree that most of the attempts at gravity distracts for the free-flowing humor of the movie. The ending was effective to some degree, largely I suppose because the movie had to have some type of resolution. I agree that Winterbottom has directed some very good films. Thanks for comment and the suggestion about “24 Hour Party People,” which I’ve added to my list of movies to see.