The Trip directed by Michael Winterbottom

When English actor Steve Coogan is asked by the Observer to spend a week traveling Britain to review several restaurants for its supplement, this road film breaks out. Envisioning this trip as the perfect opportunity to have time some us time with his girlfriend, she leaves the country. He is forced to ask his friend, Welsh actor Ben Brydon. While touring the cold, damp and dank portions of the Isles, the film becomes a vehicle to examine the two men and their friendship.

Steve comes off narcissistic and insecure. His relationships with women aren’t healthy. While Steve calls his girlfriend too often because he is jealous, Rob genuinely misses his wife and his baby. Steve’s relationships with women are best demonstrated by his inability to remember whether he had sex with a woman he meets.

It is not until later in the film the viewer finally realizes that Steve and Rob are not just professional acquaintances, but that they have one of those friendships that can only develop over time and travails. At times, they discuss very personal issues, while at other times they appear to dis each other so much that you believe that there is no way that they can be friends. Someone listening to these jab-fests would believe that they are horrible to each other. However, those that have that great friendship appreciate it – that great friendship where you are like a couple married for years that know each other too well but, in the end, would do anything for that friend. They have that kind of friendship where they annoy the hell out of each other but enjoy each other’s company.

This trailer has been running at the Belcourt for a while. I was concerned that this was going to be one of those films where all of the good lines are in the trailer. While most of the best lines are in the trailer, including the “who can do a better Michael Caine” bit, there are other very funny lines. But this is a buddy road film. That means that there are funny parts, parts that are supposed to be funny but do not work, and personal parts. After all, that is what friendship is all about. So, in that, the film succeeds.

This film is not as good as Buck or Tree of Life, which is still showing at the Belcourt Theatre, or Midnight in Paris, which is showing at the mainstream cinemas, but it is better than other films showing at theatres around town.