I’ve seen previews for The Trip, The Trip to Italy and The Trip to Spain, but considering I didn’t know who these two British guys were despite being a bit of an Anglophile, and I found Sideways disappointing, I thought, “Hard pass.” I finally know Steve Coogan after seeing and enjoying his performances in Philomena and Around the World in 80 Days so I was willing to give the franchise a chance. It also helped that I was soon going on a trip myself and was convalescing from a cold so I needed a film that would not demand too much from me and would get me in the right mood. Unfortunately I inadvertently watched them out of sequential order, which was not my intention or ordinary practice, but I was sick so I will review them in that order. This review is the third of three.
The Trip to Italy is the second of three movies, which originally aired as a longer series, and my favorite film in the franchise. This franchise feels like a documentary because the two main characters, Coogan and Rob Brydon, whom I do not know, play themselves, but it is improvised and fictional. Most of the other actors are playing fictional roles as a wife, agent, handler, etc. Unlike the first and third film, The Trip to Italy puts the shoe on the other foot, and Brydon invites Coogan on an assignment to Italy. Coogan seems more content with his career even as it goes through some hiccups and secure with his family life whereas Brydon is the one striving for markers of success with women and in his career with some scandalous developments considering what we know about his family life in the film series.
The Trip to Italy is freaking hilarious. It is the only one in the franchise that made me laugh out loud during a riff on The Dark Knight Rises, dueling Michael Caine impressions, commentary on music and liking women who aren’t crazy as you get older (“Can you put the lid on the jars”). I feel like you need to see The Trip to fully appreciate how much better the second film is and to understand how it improved on the narrative pattern established and carried out in the rest of the franchise, but it probably works as a standalone film too. I also loved that when the two men interacted with Emma and Yolanda, they actually had conversations with them instead of just making them audience members forced to appreciate their jokes like needy children. I actually believed that these people would actually want to hang out with each other as opposed to it being a necessary obligation and the price to pay for getting to travel for free. They felt like adults, not needy adolescents in grown bodies. When Coogan shows disapproval, it seems less mean spirited and more organic.
The Trip to Italy makes some really cool film references, and Brydon’s man in a box routine finally got the ultimate payoff in Pompeii. It is more beautiful to watch than The Trip, but The Trip to Spain wins hands down when it comes to capturing breathtaking vistas. If you are fans of the idea of Coogan and Brydon, The Trip to Italy is the best of the franchise, and you may want to save the best for last, but if you are one and done because of time constraints, then this installment is the one for you.