The Trip is a spiritual successor to director Michael Winterbottom’s 2006's A Cock and Bull Story, an adaptation of the famed Laurence Sterne novel “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.” Winterbottom approached the “unfilmable” novel by giving equal time to co-stars Steve Coogan and Rod Brydon, portraying fictional versions of themselves – Coogan the egotistical womanizer and Brydon scrambling to spar for top dog. Their on-set exploits, a clash of egos between two men uniquely ill-suited to be around one another, must have heralded a recipe for success because four years later, The Trip premiered on BBC 2 as a six episode (thirty minutes each) series. What we got in the States is an edited-down feature film, and who’s to say we’re worse off for it? The Trip is a pleasurable distraction that features emotional beats that feel a bit unearned in the face of so much humorous intellectual sparring.
Perhaps it's not a stretch for either actor to play essentially a shade of themselves, but the film benefits from how well Coogan and Brydon embody these possibly fictional personas. Winterbottom directed this series coming off The Killer Inside Me, a disturbing and underrated neo-noir that made waves for its shocking violence against women - an easy mistake to make out of context, but having seen the film, there is no glorification of these scenes - instead they are a necessary part of the whole. Perhaps the blowback from Killer made Winterbottom reconsider briefly doing something equally out of the ordinary, so The Trip is very much a by-the-numbers travelogue.
When Coogan is hired by The Observer to do a wine-and-dine tour of Northern England and his American girlfriend bails on him, the actor uncomfortably gets in touch with Brydon to join him. Their "friendship" is the film's anchor, a strange, very life-like concoction of quirks and insecurities shared between two men who've achieved varying levels of professional success. Coogan is still looking for that break-through hit despite being respected and known in Britain for narcissistic TV personality Alan Partridge, among other creations. Frequently moody and self-serious, he is tortured by the lack of international hits that would make him a worldwide star, an honor he feels is long overdue. Brydon is more affable and relaxed, seemingly a comedian unbowed by the lack of major fame and more concerned with family matters than the arduous professional climb.
The two proceed to drive from restaurant to restaurant, all the while taking shots at one another and trading countless impressions (Michael Caine and Al Pacino are frequent "guests"). It's actually surprising that the impression, easily the funniest moments in the promotional material, are such a major part of the film. A good quarter of the nearly two-hour film is devoted to the comedians trading off dead-on voices or works in progress that they proceed to dissect with barbed intellects. The food gets a close-up as well, as Winterbottom offers a glimpse into the kitchen and captures the actors dining on the finished product. There's an overwhelmingly improvisational feel to the proceedings, and its a wonder so much of the material sticks - Coogan and Brydon play well together and their fictional incompatibility is a blessing. The geography and landscape of Northern England (moors and brooks and all that) are lensed with care and sometimes instill a sense of wonder that makes you consider a visit.
What stops The Trip from scaling the heights where comedy classics rest easy on their laurels are non-existent stakes. It's an inside look, a docudrama/comedy that offers a few slight laughs but largely a satisfaction based on whether you can keep up with Coogan and Brydon's sometimes verbose, sometimes childish put-downs. Coogan could technically be considered a main character here, but his arc and the emotional consistency the film strives off is so underwhelming as to be non-existent. Feel free to disagree but when the film draws to a close and we are no doubt expected to feel a bit of sorrow for Coogan's forlorn star, this writer did not. The Trip comes as highly recommended film you might return to if only to watch the actors perform closely.
DVD Bonus Features
Where is the fanfare for the special features on this DVD? The film's trailer, an 11-minute Making-Of, 2 minutes of photos and footage of a climb taken by Brydon, a 12-minute featurette on the meals featured in the film and 141 minutes of deleted scenes. Hmm...did you catch that? An hour and 41 minutes of multiple takes and riffing that didn't make it into the film - I can't vouch for the series. In all honesty, I didn't make it far into the deleted scene but they entertaining and I do appreciate such a full-bodied extra.
"The Trip" is on sale October 11, 2011 and is not rated. Comedy, Drama. Directed by Michael Winterbottom. Starring Rob Brydon, Steve Coogan.
