The Trip to Spain

I love Michael Winterbottom's Trip movies, but it's conditional: as long as it's just Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan riffing, it's hysterically funny. I would love to invite these guys over for dinner every night. But when they add plot to movies, as if they were trying to make them meet the requirements of drama, they weigh the thing down. Guys in mid-life crisis are funny, but not when they have to face depressing news.

Coogan and Brydon are in Spain this time, both writing restaurant reviews. Brydon has a new baby, so is eager to get out of the house. Coogan intends to meet his son, Joe, and is back in a relationship with a woman, but the catch is she married someone else.

There is some travel and food porn going on here. Spain looks absolutely gorgeous (as Elton John sang, "Daniel says it's the best place he's ever been"). Each day the men have a fantastic lunch, stay the night in hotels that used to be castles, and improv their way through meals. Mostly they like to do impressions. They have some new ones this time, as well as old favorites like Roger Moore and Michael Caine (they love to say a line from Get Carter: "She was only fifteen years old.") Mick Jagger is mimicked, doing Shakespeare. David Bowie is conjured wondering whether to follow Brydon on Twitter or not. There's an extensive dream sequence with Brydon as Marlon Brando as Torquemada. And there's Anthony Hopkins playing Picasso. Each thinks their impersonation is better.

This is comedy gold. They also make up a scene in which Brydon tries to get a ride on a white water raft trip even though he's too old. Brydon also hectors Coogan with his Roger Moore impersonation while Coogan is trying to explain the magnificence of the Moors (Moore, Moor, get it?)

It's interesting what they include that's real as opposed to fictional. All the family stuff is fictional--Coogan has no son--but they do include real stuff, like Coogan getting Oscar nominations for Philomena. He's writing a new film, about a man looking for his lost daughter. Brydon notes this follows a movie about a woman looking for her son. He suggest the next movie could be about a man looking for his car.

Brydon is not a star in the U.S., except for these films. One of the threads of the film is Coogan learning that his agent has left the agency, but has not asked him along to his new place. That agent ends up calling Brydon and telling him he could be the new Ricky Gervais. But he has no interest in doing work in L.A., while Coogan desperately hungers for American acceptance.

The film uses "Windmills of My Mind" as a sort of theme song, which ties into Don Quixote, who is also mentioned a good deal in the film (the two are dressed up as Quixote and Sancho Panza for a photo shoot).

Though these two are playing fictional versions of themselves, it's interesting to see how their characters are formed. Coogan is a mass of anxiety and admits that he can be cruel. Brydon is completely easy going. They often don't seem to like each other, and needle each other mercilessly. Brydon asks Coogan if he would so Shakespeare. "I've always wanted to play Hamlet," Coogan answers. "That ship has sailed," Brydon tells him. "Olivier played him when he was 42," Coogan retorts. "Olivier was a better actor," Brydon points out. "A different actor," Coogan offers. Yet their bond seems unbreakable. When they part, Brydon says, "I'll see you in another country." Probably France, or maybe Greece. We can be sure there's another film because this one actually ends in a cliff-hanger. I can't wait.