Review:
"The Trip to Italy"
Release Date: Aug. 29, 2014
Rating: Not Rated Running Time: 108 minutes “I’m surprised The Observer wants us to do this again. Neither of us knows … anything about food,” Steve Coogan tells his dining companion Rob Brydon when they first sit down to dine in The Trip to Italy. That much was evident from 2011’s The Trip, which found the fictional versions of Coogan and Brydon visiting high-end restaurants in northern England while discussing the life and work of Wordsworth and Coleridge. The Trip wasn’t so much about what the British TV fixtures thought about their food: their conversations mostly reflected how they saw themselves and how they saw each other. This second ego trip is just as funny as the first, with Coogan and Brydon employing new and familiar ways to cut each other down to size in friendly fashion. Of course, there’s more than a hint of the truth in the biting zingers that Coogan and Brydon fire across the dinner table at the restaurants they frequent in Rome, Capri and on the Italian Riviera. Possessing a superiority complex but riddled with jealousy, Coogan is the perfectly insufferable target for Brydon’s putdowns. Coogan, though, gives as good as he gets by seeking out the every possible opportunity to belittle Brydon for his lack of recognition and popularity outside of the United Kingdom. Things get comically edgy when one begrudgingly helps the other audition on tape for a Michael Mann thriller. Despite their friendly rivalry, they are self-absorbed birds of feather. They always find a way to turn the subject of conversation back to them, whether they are discussing Percy Shelley and Lord Byron’s time in Italy or the Hollywood giants who stayed at a particular hotel. This, though, makes for some very witty dinner conversations, most of which feature Coogan and Brydon engaging in their trademark impersonation-offs of Michael Caine, Roger Moore, Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro. Caine, of course, casts a big shadow over The Trip to Italy as Coogan and Brydon zoom across the country in a Mini. Their obsession with playing Alanis Morissette’s greatest hits both amuses and annoys. With all the talking, eating, and driving, Coogan and Brydon still find time to take some life-altering actions, both good and bad. Just as he did with The Trip, director Michael Winterbottom doesn’t get in the way of Coogan and Brydon doing their thing. He occasionally ventures into each kitchen’s restaurant to show the staff working their magic—you can smell the food from here—but he refuses to engage in food porn. Winterbottom also lets the beautiful Italian scenery shoot itself. The problem with Winterbottom sending Coogan and Brydon to Italy is that it is next to impossible to find another country that looks as fantastic, is known for food to die for, and is rich in culture. So where Coogan and Brydon would head to on their next Observer assignment—assuming there is another one—is a bit of mystery. Well, there has to be another Observer assignment, if only to find out how this trip to Italy changes two men coping with all that middle age can throw at them. And for the food, of course. Robert Sims Aired: Aug. 28, 2014 Web site: http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/the-trip-to-italy |
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