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THE TRIP (2011) (***)

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It's kind of like SIDEWAYS crossed with MY DINNER WITH ANDRE. In the former, we have old friends on vacation. In the latter, the two friends do spend a great time talking over dinner. Sounds kind of boring. But wait. The dinner guests are Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.

Coogan and Brydon play exaggerated versions of the own personas. Coogan has been asked by The Observer to tour fine restaurants in the North and write about the experience. He wanted to take his girlfriend Mischa (Margo Stilley, HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS & ALIENATE PEOPLE), but she has decided to put their relationship on a break. Steve misses her, but that doesn't stop him from bedding hostesses, waitresses and a female photographer.

One can tell that most of this has been improvised, but when it's in the hands of Coogan and Brydon it works wonderfully. Most of the laughs come from Coogan's exasperation over Brydon constantly doing impressions. But after awhile Coogan can't resist jumping in and trying to best Brydon. Celebrities that get a voice cameo include Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Woody Allen and Richard Burton. Brydon's Caine is dead on, but he does get a little frustrated when the photographer Magda (Dolya Gavanski, IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY) just can't pinpoint the impression.

There is also an interesting rivalry between Coogan and Brydon over their careers. Coogan believes that he's far more talented and better looking than the family man Brydon. So his reaction when someone recognizes Brydon and not him is priceless. They also get into a theoretical conversation on whether they'd wish a temporary ill on a member of their family in order to win an Oscar. During they're trip they visit the home of Wordsworth and the next morning Brydon recites a poem. It's a little nudge to Coogan that he can memorize lines easily. Coogan just complains that he had to do it in Ian McKellen's voice.

Underneath the comedy runs a current of sadness. Coogan is a bit of a letch. More than once he's out in a field trying to get a cellphone signal so he can call Mischa and tell her how much he misses her. The subtleties of their relationship come out in their conversations. Mischa thinks that Coogan unknowingly looks down on her as just another pretty face. Brydon's loving relationship with his wife and young son and Coogan's distant relationship with his son only adds to the idea that Coogan's loneliness comes from his ego.

The film was actually cut together from a TV series and is directed by Michael Winterbottom, who directed Coogan and Brydon in the ingenious TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY, where they also starred as themselves playing roles in an adaptation of Laurence Sterne's "unfilmable" novel. This outing is certainly less ambitious. For the most part, this comedy is a concert film shot on location with great looking food.

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Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks