“Was there a lot of alcohol in your garden as a child, Rob? I’m sorry.”
What’s it all about? In the follow-up to 2006′s A COCK AND BULL STORY, director Michael Winterbottom reunites with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon for THE TRIP, a road trip comedy edited from the television sitcom series of the same name.
If you are like me and enjoyed the extended sequences in A COCK AND BULL STORY where Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon did nothing but talk to each other, then you will enjoy THE TRIP immensely. Though the film does have a narrative that includes other characters, that’s not what you’re paying for with THE TRIP; It’s all for Coogan and Brydon sitting at a table, eating food and talking. The height, teeth and chin jokes that were in A COCK AND BULL STORY are here again in THE TRIP, but here Coogan and Brydon have enough time to add in as many impersonations as they wish. There are a lot of impersonations (of which the Michael Caine and James Bond ones are their best). Oh, and of course, I don’t want to overlook the “Gentlemen — To bed!” conversation in the car. That’s a highlight, for sure.
Personally, I prefer the television sitcom series that was broadcast on the BBC, if only because the audience gets to spend more time with Coogan and Brydon. There’s one episode of THE TRIP that is just the two of them sitting at a restaurant and eating. There aren’t any other characters save for the waiters, and Coogan only leaves the table briefly to take a phone call. Besides that, there isn’t anything but Coogan and Brydon eating ridiculously over-priced food, doing impressions and ridiculing each other. Unfortunately, there is also a scene in the television series where Brydon makes a pass at a woman who is not his wife, and I rather like the fact that this is not included in the film. I like to believe that the fictional Rob Brydon is the perfect (impression-making) man.
Notes: Directed by Michael Winterbottom; Produced by Andrew Eaton, Melissa Parmenter, Henry Normal, Michael Winterbottom; Starring Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon; Cinematography by Ben Smithard; Editing by Mags Arnold, Paul Monaghan.
