The Trip

Film (2010)
Directed by Michael Winterbottom
Edited by Mags Arnold and Paul Monaghan
Music by Michael Nyman

With Steve Coogan (Steve), Rob Brydon (Rob), Claire Keelan (Emma), Margo Stilley (Mischa), Rebecca Johnson (Sally), Dolya Gavanski (Magda) and Kerry Shale (Steve’s United States Agent)

Kendall Square Cinema
Cambridge, MA

The buddy movie has become a standard genre, but, pulled off in an offbeat way, it can yield fun and interesting results. Sideways (2004) with Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church is a prime example of a recent successful one.

Here, quite entertaining at times, is a buddy movie set in England, with two manic actors traveling around going to gourmet restaurants. They – Steve (Steve Coogan) and Rob (Rob Brydon) – are in a continual attempt to outdo one another with celebrity actor impersonations, which sometimes produces very funny results. They are obsessed with Michael Caine and Sean Connery and a good amount of time goes towards their refinements on those impressions. Though generally funny, the constant singularity of competing impressions eventually gets a tad wearing.

There is a more serious undertone to the narrative about the incapacity of one of the characters to form intimate relationships. It feels a bit weighty, given the comic drive of the rest of the film, and seems sort of pasted onto the continual goofing. Obviously meant to provide counter ballast to the manic competition, it does not quite keep the boat moving forward, seeming to function more like a sea anchor than a keel.

– BADMan