Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The Trip



What do actors do when they aren't acting? Perfecting their acting, more or less. Well, at least a special breed like Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. The film is a mocumentary that was later a TV series in the UK. Basically, its improv at its best.

Steve takes Rob on a foodie journey since Steve's girlfriend has gone to America to cover a story.

What I like best about this film is the friendship and how they can say anything to each other. Sometimes, there are rather long monologues of their impressions. Yet, these two are very different. They are in very different places in their lives.

Rob is very much in love with his wife and their new baby. He misses them very much on their drive in Northern England to various gourmet places to eat. You might remember Rob in Gavin and Stacey. He's such a comic as well as a very serious actor. In the movie he's found fame with his voice with A Tiny Man in a Box which Steve really envies in a certain sort of friend way.

Steve (who is widely know in the UK as Alan Partridge while in America we are fond of his Tommie Saxondale character) on the other hand, might not be capable of a real relationships. We see hints of how lonely he is. He's alone, even if he does have a so-called girlfriend. His teenage son keeps missing his calls and perhaps is doing what ordinary teenagers do, having a bit of fun with his mates during the week. Coogan doesn't like how his ex talks down to him on the phone. He's angst as to why has he made more of a success of his career, yet he wouldn't be happy with too much fame, either. And his dreams are interesting, too.



Truly, I can't think of the director having to do all that much directing in this film. Steve and Rob are who they are and yet, those two are characters too.


  • Rob Brydon: Well, Port Talbot has a population of 30,000 people, that means he's slept with half the women in Port Talbot.
  • Steve Coogan: Well, no, half the population are men, so...
  • Rob Brydon: So he's slept with all the women in Port Talbot. Which I wouldn't wish on anybody.

As the movie progresses, we sense Coogan's loneliness even if he does manage a hook up or two while Rob is much in tune with his wife on the phone, every night. He calls home the old fashioned way, in bed on the room phone, while Steve might have to be on a hill somewhere hoping to get a connection on his cell. An excuse he makes to his girlfriend, while in fact he was with some waitress or photographer.

Thankfully, the show was turned into a TV series in 2010. There is more to the story. They talk of getting old and everything that goes with it.  Lots of wit and tons of dialogue. Just the way we like these two.

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