by Ryan Macdonald

After a slow Saturday at work, I hauled ass to the Harvard Exit for an afternoon showing of Michael Winterbottom’s new film, The Trip. When I saw the enormous line outside, I said a silent “thank you” to the traffic gods that they hadn’t opened the doors yet. Turns out that was the standby line. Everyone else was already inside, and I managed to sardine my way into a seat in the balcony right as the film started. Fuck you, traffic gods.

There’s something everyone should know before seeing this film. The Trip was originally shot as a 6 episode series on British TV. This film was cut together from that footage. So while it does satisfy the necessary plot containment, it also seems slightly fragmented at times.

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon again play themselves (similar to Winterbottom’s Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) in this road trip fiasco. Coogan has been asked by The Observer to travel around Northern England and critique some of the finest restaurants in the country. He sees it as a great opportunity to bond with his girlfriend. But when she takes a job in America, Coogan has to call up his coworker/buddy/creative competitor Rob. Awkwardly, the two embark on a long, drawn-out tour of tasting menus, beautiful landscapes, and celebrity impressions.

I was a huge fan of Winterbottom’s 9 Songs and Butterfly Kisses, but last year’s The Killer Inside Me was definitely disappointing, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one. The only thing I did expect was that it would have the same kind of raw, brutally honest character portraits as his previous films, and I was intrigued to see how that played out in a largely unscripted comedy powered by the perpetually funny and charming Steve Coogan. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

The first half hour of the film, I was totally on board. There was an awkwardness between the two leads that mainly stemmed from Coogan’s uncertainty with a floundering career and a fragmented personal life. He wanted to plan the route, dictate the stops, stick to a rigid soundtrack (“industrial, urban landscape” music while driving through the countryside. Pretty funny.). Brydon wanted to stop here and there for food and listen to…good music. I was laughing hysterically along with everyone else when they started in with their impressions (damn fine impressions, actually) of Al Pacino, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, and Woody Allen. I was interested in the well-edited sequences at posh, expensive, middle-of-nowhere restaurants. But for the hour after that, it was the same shit over and over and over and over and over again. The same four impressions, the same restaurant sequences, the same seemingly innocuous conversations with jealous, resentful undertones. If I had watched it split up into six episodes, once a week, over time I probably would’ve found it very enjoyable. But in an hour and a half, it gets really old, really fast.

I would like to give the film a lot of credit. I would love to say that Winterbottom, Coogan, and Brydon had written in an entire dialog of subtext within the film. Maybe during the impression battles, Coogan is actually telling Brydon, “why do you have to upstage me all the time?” and Brydon is responding, “I’m just having fun, stop being so sensitive. Your career is fine.” I’d like to believe that when Coogan does a mock eulogy for Brydon, that’s the emotional turning point where he’s really saying, “I give you a lot of shit, but you’re a talented guy, and we’ve known each other for 11 years. I’m glad you’re here.” I would be very comfortable theorizing that there is actually a visible character arc, and development at the end really legitimizes the entire film. The only thing I can actually say about this film is that, despite proficient cinematography and artful editing, this was a very funny movie that dragged on for an hour too long. As much as I love Michael Winterbottom, anyone could’ve directed this film, and it would’ve turned out exactly the same. I’m not necessarily sorry I watched it, I just wouldn’t watch it again.

Final Grade: B-

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