The Trip to Greece
Directed by: Michael Winterbottom
Written by: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Claire Keelan, Rebecca Johnson, Marta Barrio, Timothy Leach, Kareem Alkabbani, Cordelia Bugeja
Comedy/Drama - 103 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 20 May 2020
Written by: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Claire Keelan, Rebecca Johnson, Marta Barrio, Timothy Leach, Kareem Alkabbani, Cordelia Bugeja
Comedy/Drama - 103 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 20 May 2020
For many, 2020 is the year from hell. Death, disease, unemployment, hunger, and lockdown. For cinephiles, I hope your home systems were set up and ready to go before they took away your IMAX screens and art house wine bars. I am in no way jealous Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon got to eat their way through Michelin-star restaurants and enjoy five star hotel accommodations across yet another exotic locale. While we must don protective gear to venture out to the grocery store, here are two men oblivious to the encroaching disaster. Director Michael Winterbottom, without knowing it, made a last hurrah - both a remembrance of what it used to be like and perhaps a dream of what may someday return.
Steve and Rob took us to the Lakes District, Italy, and Spain. Now, they retrace Odysseus’s epic journey from Troy to Ithaca, albeit with pillows. If the world was still business as normal, I wonder if the critical class would be as lenient toward The Trip to Greece. The wisecracking duo confront the obvious before we have a chance to, “As you get older, it’s inevitable you repeat yourself; everything is derivative.” The schtick and tête-à-tête between the pair as they poke at one another is the exact same routine they pulled off nearly 10 years ago; only the balcony views have changed. Winterbottom and company are coasting, but I don’t care. They’re still witty as ever.
Steve and Rob took us to the Lakes District, Italy, and Spain. Now, they retrace Odysseus’s epic journey from Troy to Ithaca, albeit with pillows. If the world was still business as normal, I wonder if the critical class would be as lenient toward The Trip to Greece. The wisecracking duo confront the obvious before we have a chance to, “As you get older, it’s inevitable you repeat yourself; everything is derivative.” The schtick and tête-à-tête between the pair as they poke at one another is the exact same routine they pulled off nearly 10 years ago; only the balcony views have changed. Winterbottom and company are coasting, but I don’t care. They’re still witty as ever.
Coogan and Brydon are surprisingly fortunate. Audiences will view The Trip to Greece through a different lens. Instead of accusing them of copycatting what worked before, we may look at Greece and wonder what it will look like if we ever get to travel to Europe again. The hike up to Delphi, the casual swim in Athens, and flirting with the local waitresses all must be considered through social distancing efforts and hand sanitizer. There is no grab-and-go at these restaurants. If you’ve kept up with the series, you know there are frequent quick cuts to the kitchen as we watch the staff prepare impossibly succulent lamb and layer shellfish into high-art mosaics.
The more familiar you are with the trip films, and the actors’ body of work, the more dividends will pay off for you. The pair reference their previous trips and Coogan even runs into a participant from his recent film, Greed, also directed by Winterbottom. They venture outside a refugee camp surrounded by barbed wire and wonder if it is to keep people out or in. They also toy with the fine line of most of this is real, but some of it is fiction. Even on the most wild of holidays, you carry your domestic baggage with you. Whatever problems you endure at home tend to follow you on the plane and into other countries. Coogan’s father is ill and he frequently chats with his son about the most current news. Rob misses his wife and two young children, as he does on each trip, and always wonders why it is he ever leaves them.
It is borderline robotic when the pair, known for imitations, try on Marlon Brando and Mic Jagger again, and while the imitations were the highlight of previous films, they are more sparse this time around. The region’s history and culture takes center stage with Aristotle and Alexander the Great receiving their fair share of attention. You already know whether or not you appreciate tagging along with this eclectic duo. The scenery is different, but the game is the same. Lucky for us homebound dreamers, the humor remains laced with top shelf material and even though all involved swear this is the last trip, how shocked will you be when The Trip to Lichtenstein pops up someday?
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