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THE TRIP

By Michael WINTERBOTTOM

GÖTEBORG FILM FESTIVAL - as DISTR VOD, SWEDEN

Comedy - Completed 2010

- Year of production
- 2010
- Genres
- Comedy
- Countries
- UNITED KINGDOM
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Director(s)
- Michael WINTERBOTTOM
- ISAN
- 0000-0002-E4C6-0000-Y-0000-0000-9
- EIDR
- 10.5240/2AB1-8942-138E-BD02-4D39-O
- Synopsis
- Reprising their hilariously fictionalized roles from Tristram Shandy: A Cock and BullStory, which screened at the festival, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reunite with director Michael Winterbottom for an acerbically witty trip through the English countryside.
  Coogan is asked by The Observer newspaper to travel through the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, dining in fine restaurants and visiting various historic locations from the life of William Wordsworth. But when his girlfriend backs out on him, he has no one to accompany him on the trip. Enter Brydon, his best friend and source of eternal aggravation. After a half-hearted invitation where Coogan explains he’s asked everyone else and that Brydon is his last resort, the two of them set off in the car, armed only with a map and incredible comic timing.
  Largely improvised, the film follows the pair from restaurant to restaurant, as they drive each other mad with constant competitions. Their showdown of competing Michael Caine impressions just has to be seen. Coogan plays the cranky, pompous artiste who is secretly jealous of Brydon’s mainstream success, particularly his frequent appearances on British game shows and the fact that Brydon now has an iPhone app designed after his famous “Small Man in a Box” routine – the nerve!
  Coogan and Brydon make a brilliant comic duo, freestyling with flair and performing impressions (Sean Connery, Woody Allen, Michael Sheen!) that are hilarious whether they’re spot on or just in the ballpark. But the film is more than just jokes. With the same effortless slips between fiction and fact of Tristram Shandy, Winterbottom grounds his comedy in timeless observations about the importance of friendship and family. Brydon, the family man, makes constant calls home to his wife and new baby, while Coogan pines for his girlfriend amidst casual one-night stands. By the end of the journey, both men realize that loved ones are more important than any amount of fame. Almost any amount.