BEFORE: I watched the first film, with Coogan and Brydon touring Northern England, a little over two years ago, then I think last year after getting heavy into Netflix, I noticed that the two sequels are available there. Then it just became a matter of how best to work them in to the chain -
But since I watched the first film, my wife and I also took a vacation that was structured the same way - fly to one city, drive across part of a country to experience fine food at each stop, and fly home from the last city. Last October we started in Dallas and then drove to Little Rock, Memphis and finally Nashville, and we enjoyed the best BBQ we could find in each city. We did lots of other things, too, but the main structure was planned around the driving and hotel reservations, then we just tried to do things in each city that seemed like they would be fun. A very successful trip, and now we're planning the follow-up, going back to Dallas and driving to Austin, San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans. I cashed in all of my frequent-flyer miles, so the tickets are bought, now we just need to block out the days, select some restaurants and find fun things in each city. This will kick off on my birthday in October, and maybe that will take some of the sting out of getting older, and entering a new decade in age.
Alessandro Cuomo carries over from "Secret in Their Eyes" - even if he had an uncredited role in that film, it still counts.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "The Trip" (Movie #2,327)
THE PLOT: Two men, six meals in six different places on a road trip around Italy - Liguria, Tuscany, Rome, Amalfi and ending in Capri.
AFTER: These films that are half-fiction, half-travelogue are quite confusing. Was this dialogue scripted, or unscripted? How does an actor play a "semi-fictional" version of himself, what does that even MEAN? Plus there seems to be a six-part BBC series of the same name, for both the original "The Trip" movie and this one - do those episodes cover different trips, or different material from the same trip, or what? Do I have to watch those if I watch this film, or would that be pointless? (Like 2/3 of the "Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby" movies...)
Ah, wait, I answered many of these questions two years ago, I should have checked my past review first. The feature film is an edited-together version of the six-episode series, so there's no need to watch both. And there are many differences between the real Coogan and Brydon and the fictional versions seen here, for starters the real Coogan doesn't have a son, so one had to be cast for dramatic purposes. Brydon, meanwhile, has three children with his first wife and two sons with his second, but his fictional counterpart only mentions one three-year-old daughter. Next I suppose you'll tell me that these men don't have awkward affairs while traveling through Europe, either.
I suppose it makes sense, this isn't pitched as a documentary, and what celebrity would want to have the personal details of their life mentioned on camera, what with all the crazy people around these days. And once you start to realize this is fiction, the signs are everywhere - for example, we never see any camera or crew, nor any mention of one being hired or following these men on their trip, so how are we seeing the footage then? And during some of the driving scenes, their car is seen from several different angles, so that means either multiple crews, or they had to drive down a stretch of road again and again to get that coverage. And was there a camera crew in their hotel rooms to get those shots of them making late-night phone calls, or reading scripts before turning in for the night?
Still, we've all become so used to multi-camera techniques and also "confessional documentary" TV series like "The Office" and "Modern Family" that some people might not even think of these things. Ever since film school I've found that it's harder for me to NOT think about how a film was made, and it's only on rare occurrences like intense sci-fi films that I'm able to switch that off for a while.
So I can't really believe anything that happens here, except the food is probably real (and delicious) and same goes for the scenery. The gimmick here is that Brydon has been hired to travel in the footsteps of the great Romantic poets Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, both of whom spent time in Italy, which I did not know. They start in Piedmont and end in Capri (the original plan to visit Sicily doesn't work out) and if you should ever want to take this same trip, and you can afford it, it's not too hard to find the names of the hotels they stayed in and the restaurants they ate in. They drive a Mini Cooper as a visual reference to "The Italian Job", and it's on to Byron's house in Genoa, the Italian Riviera, Pisa (no glimpse of the Leaning Tower? Really?) and then Rome, to see Shelley's burial site, the Spanish steps and the Colosseum. From there they drive to the Amalfi Coast, where they view the ruins of Pompeii, and finally meet up with Coogan's fictional son in Capri.
I've just looked at their route on Google Maps, and I'm more confused than ever. Obviously they had a specific agenda, because I don't know why anyone would come so close to Turin, Florence and Naples without working them in to the itinerary. (I did not realize Pompeii was so close to Naples.) Yes, I understand that cities like Venice and Bologna are on the other side of the country, but what food tour wouldn't include them? There's no better example of a country that has a distinct local cuisine in each city, and I can't fathom being in that country and not want to try something in each city's style - Bolognese, Florentine, Parmesan, Milanese, etc. Why not go to Bologna, Florence, Parma and Milan to check out the original versions of these dishes?
I believe that I would do well in any foreign country, at least when it comes to the food. I speak semi-fluent French and German, but I don't even need that, right? Not when I can point to a food item (on a counter or on a menu) and hold up a certain number of fingers, right? All you really need to know are "please" and "thank you" in another language and you probably won't starve, that's good enough for me. (Neither of us spoke Texan, and we did just fine down there...).
Beyond the food and the scenery, this film is really about the impressions - all of the conversations during the meals naturally turn toward the actors that these two men can sound like, namely Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hardy, Richard Burton, Hugh Grant and Robert De Niro. Brydon wins the Hugh Grant sound-alike contest easily, but Coogan's De Niro is far superior.
But to really crack the code on this film, and I hate to be cynical about this, you have to understand that this is why some people get into acting in the first place, to travel around the world on the production company's dime. Why else would people work long hours on film shoots, if not to get some time off in exotic locations, and to visit places that they probably couldn't afford to visit otherwise? It's a scam at the end of the day, but it's a legal one. The top actors like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise probably get so many offers that they can pick their scripts based on shooting locations, and if they can bring their families with them, with all costs covered by the production budget, where's the harm?
Nobody's paying ME to travel across the South eating delicious barbecue, I do it for the love of the sport. Just saying.
Also starring Steve Coogan (last seen in "Rules Don't Apply"), Rob Brydon (last seen in "The Huntsman: Winter's War"), Claire Keelan (last seen in "The Trip"), Marta Barrio (ditto), Timothy Leach (ditto), the voice of Rebecca Johnson (ditto), Rosie Fellner, Ronni Ancona.
RATING: 5 out of 10 Alanis Morrissette songs
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