Greece
is the birthplace of the marathon and EU austerity budgets, but neither
represents the style of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s culinary tours across
Europe. It is only five-star restaurants and hotels for them, but if the
formula works, why fiddle with it? The British comedic actors return for one
more jaunt playing hyper-meta versions of themselves in Michael Winterbottom’s The
Trip to Greece, which actually opens today in a handful of cities and also
releases on-demand.
Coogan
has won seven BAFTA Awards—and don’t you forget it. However, the caricature he
has created of himself is somewhat lonely and regretful, especially compared to
the uber-meta Brydon, who is a happily contented husband and father. Throughout
the series, he has been totally fine to receive second-billing to Coogan,
especially since it gives him the liberty to deflate his friend’s
self-important pretensions.
This
time around, they will be reviewing the finest restaurants in Greece, but they
are well aware they have done this several times before (in Spain, Italy, and
the North of England), as their jokes will attest. Turkish viewers might possibly
object to the title, since they retrace Odysseus’s trek, starting at the site
of ancient Troy in Turkey. Mortality will also cast a shadow over this Trip,
because Coogan will constantly call his fictional son for news on his ailing
fictional father.
Of
course, the heart and soul of the latest Trip remains their improvised
banter and one-upping celebrity impersonations. They revisit greatest hits,
like Michael Caine and Roger Moore, but they probably get their biggest laughs
doing Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
Yet,
in a way, the Trip movies have become like an erudite art-house equivalent
to Friends and The Big Bang Theory. The jokes are funny, but the
experience of periodically checking-in with these meta-characters is emotionally
reassuring. We’ve seen exaggerated-Brydon’s career grow in prestige and popularity,
while Coogan’s projected self tries to refocus on the family he did not
properly prioritize on his way up.
