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The Trip (Michael Winterbottom, 2010)
The Trip’s premise
mines humor from the improvisational conversations between Coogan and Brydon.
The two are ill-suited for their simple job as critics, showing very little
interest in and next to no expertise about the food they are supposed to be
reviewing. “The consistency is a bit
like snot,” Coogan declares after taking a bite, “but it
tastes great!” The two spend most of
their time instead discussing their careers and ribbing each other about their
respective acting prowess. This competition over who is the better actor largely
takes the form of an endless series of celebrity impressions. Beyond this, the
two engage in some light sightseeing (Coogan, from Manchester, amusingly feels
like he’s deeply in touch with the area) and manage their personal relationships
via cell phone. This is slight material, to be sure, but it is pleasant, to an
extent. The nice cinematography, courtesy of Ben Smithard, makes the best of the
overcast English countryside. The conversations between Coogan and Brydon are
mostly clever and fun. Still, one cannot help but feel the film could aim at
resolving something deeper than the boilerplate relationship issues that irk the
two men. As it is, the improvisational jabs that the men throw at one another
are drawn from a limited bag of tricks, and are not quite enough to sustain the
film. Near the end, Coogan’s father comments that “it must be exhausting keeping
all of this going on,” and he’s more right than not. As
The Trip’s limited charms begin to
wear thin, the lack of greater substance becomes more of a liability. Of course,
not every film needs to aspire to great drama, but
The Trip’s insistent modesty begins
to feel like a crutch after a while. 52 Jeremy Heilman 07.13.11
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Michael
Winterbottom’s The Trip, a chatty,
faux reality show adapted from a six-episode television series, is an initially
charming diversion that sputters to a finish. The slim premise here sees two
actors tasked by the newspaper The Observer to review the great restaurants of
northern England. Playing themselves are Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, who
previously starred together (again, as themselves) in Winterbottom’s 2005
adaptation of Tristam Shandy. Coogan,
whose girlfriend chooses not to accompany him at the last moment, phones Brydon
and asks him to join him on what turns out to be an opportunity for the two men
to bond, pontificate, and reassess their priorities.