REVIEW: ‘The Trip to Greece’ quests bravely for a series finale
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon scramble amid the ruins on The Trip to Greece, directed by Michael Winterbottom.
When The Trip to Spain came out in 2017, I wrote that few fans of the series probably expected to get another installment; even the Spain chapter was a surprise. Whether you watch the series in its original form as a TV series, or as the cut-down feature films that get released in North America, the concept has always felt very niche. Two British comics - one of whom takes pains to point out his transition to dramatic roles - drive around beautiful European locales, dine at swanky restaurants and argue over their duelling celebrity impressions. In a media landscape overrun with true crime documentaries and superhero cinema, The Trip is a delightfully odd respite. It’s a genre mashup that should have run out of oxygen ages ago, but keeps surfacing for another lap.
Nevertheless, there’s an air of finality about this leg of the journey. The Trip’s long-running theme, cleverly woven into the rapid-fire banter between its two stars, is that of middle-aged men coming to grips with their mortality. We’ve seen both Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon - or rather, the amplified versions of themselves that they play in this series - struggle with satisfaction in their careers, happiness in their romantic relationships, and bonds with their children. Now The Trip to Greece pits Coogan against one the toughest challenges a man of his age could face: the illness of an elderly parent.
Director Michael Winterbottom echoes Coogan’s challenge in the black and white dream sequences he’s sprinkled through the series. At night, Coogan sees himself as the mythical Aeneas, fleeing the burning Troy with his father in tow, not sure where he’s going or what he’s supposed to do next. These sequences can be a little jarring in contrast to the rest of the films/TV episodes, but they continually remind us that even the fictional Coogan isn’t “on” and performing 24/7. Life is always ready to grind you down as soon as you get back from vacation.
There’s a noticeable air of fan service in this latest release. We don’t get many new celebrity impressions - stalwarts like Don Corleone, Roger Moore, Anthony Hopkins, and Mick Jagger all poke their voices in - and there’s the usual montages of the restaurant staff preparing their gourmet creations for Coogan and Brydon’s approval. But as far as new experiences go, it is funny to get the fictional Coogan’s behind-the-scenes reactions to real-life Coogan’s recent projects, like the Laurel and Hardy biopic Stan and Ollie and the critique of the fast-fashion industry that Coogan and Winterbottom made last year, Greed.
The dining at top-flight restaurants continues, with a side dish of middle-aged malaise.
It’s also not difficult not to notice how Winterbottom and Coogan use an early scene of The Trip to Greece to advocate for the plight of Syrian refugees, who have been taking shelter in Greece for years. They also worked this message into Greed, but in both cases, there’s a bitter taste of slacktivism to it. We’re not told how we as the audience should respond to the crisis, other than to shake our heads in dismay at a nebulous crisis out of our control. I’ve yet to be truly moved by Winterbottom’s efforts in this space, and tacking another cursory message to an installment of The Trip doesn’t help the refugees in the way the filmmakers hope.
While Coogan’s career mentions occupy much of the shop talk, and his personal life provides much of the drama, I’ve long been rooting for Brydon as the series’ secret hero. Brydon’s filmography or award nominations may not be as impressive as Coogan’s. But there’s a quiet nobility to the way fictional Brydon carries himself, trying to be a supportive friend to Coogan and an involved husband and father. Brydon spends much of the series being lectured to by Coogan about history and literature, and routinely rides in the passenger seat as Coogan drives. So there’s a sense of elation in The Trip to Greece when Brydon beats Coogan in an impromptu swimming race, and then gets to reunite with his wife for a few days on the back end of his travels with Coogan. Of course, these scenes are intended to balance out the darker path that Coogan is on, but I found it uplifting nonetheless.
If The Trip ends with this odyssey, I’d call it a fine conclusion. Winterbottom and co. have accomplished a lot with this project: they took the not-so-sexy idea of packing riotous banter, travelogue, and middle-aged melancholy into a box, and got a lot more out than they put in. If the series were to continue, I’d like the boys to be thrown completely off the deep end: let’s see them trudge across America, sampling terrible truck stop food instead of the refinement and culture of Europe. Anything to shake up the formula a bit. I love niche British comedy more than most, but not when it feels like it’s driving in circles.
The Trip to Greece gets three stars out of four.
Stray thoughts
Has any tour company offered to build a package around The Trip’s culinary destinations? I’d be a willing customer (post COVID-19, of course)
New idea for a Trip spin-off: the travels of David Mitchell, another favourite of mine.