Return to tiff.’s home page

Trip

The Trip

Michael Winterbottom

  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Year: 2010
  • Language: English
  •  
  • Programmes:

Follow two good friends in this hilarious road movie as they embark on a tour of the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales of Northern England, eating, chatting and driving each other crazy. The film stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.

Road Movie,  Comedy,  Europe

screening times

    • Saturday September 11
    • 8:45:00 PM
    • VARSITY 8
    • Monday September 13
    • 12:00:00 PM
    • RYERSON
    • Sunday September 19
    • 3:00:00 PM
    • RYERSON

Note: indicates Premium Screening.

official description

Reprising their hilariously fictionalized roles from Tristram Shandy: A Cock and BullStory, which screened at the festival, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reunite with director Michael Winterbottom for an acerbically witty trip through the English countryside.

Coogan is asked by The Observer newspaper to travel through the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, dining in fine restaurants and visiting various historic locations from the life of William Wordsworth. But when his girlfriend backs out on him, he has no one to accompany him on the trip. Enter Brydon, his best friend and source of eternal aggravation. After a half-hearted invitation where Coogan explains he’s asked everyone else and that Brydon is his last resort, the two of them set off in the car, armed only with a map and incredible comic timing.

Largely improvised, the film follows the pair from restaurant to restaurant, as they drive each other mad with constant competitions. Their showdown of competing Michael Caine impressions just has to be seen. Coogan plays the cranky, pompous artiste who is secretly jealous of Brydon’s mainstream success, particularly his frequent appearances on British game shows and the fact that Brydon now has an iPhone app designed after his famous “Small Man in a Box” routine – the nerve!

Coogan and Brydon make a brilliant comic duo, freestyling with flair and performing impressions (Sean Connery, Woody Allen, Michael Sheen!) that are hilarious whether they’re spot on or just in the ballpark. But the film is more than just jokes. With the same effortless slips between fiction and fact of Tristram Shandy, Winterbottom grounds his comedy in timeless observations about the importance of friendship and family. Brydon, the family man, makes constant calls home to his wife and new baby, while Coogan pines for his girlfriend amidst casual one-night stands. By the end of the journey, both men realize that loved ones are more important than any amount of fame. Almost any amount.

Cameron Bailey

director bio

Michael Winterbottom was born in Blackburn, England. He studied English at Oxford University and film at Bristol University and the Polytechnic of Central London. Many of his films have screened at the Festival: his four-part BBC serial Family (04), and the features Butterfly Kiss (95), Go Now (95), Jude (96), Welcome to Sarajevo (97), Wonderland (98), In This World (02), which won the Golden Bear at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival, Code 46 (03), 9 Songs (04), Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (05) and The Trip (10). His other films include The Claim (00) and 24 Hour Party People (02).

     
.
Shopping Cart
 

    Share This

    • Digg
    • Share

    Like This

    film stills and media

     
    Pause Slideshow