When Steve Coogan is asked by The Observer to tour the country's finest restaurants, he envisions it as the perfect getaway with his beautiful girlfriend. But his girlfriend decides not to go at the last minute. After being turned down by everyone else he knows, Steve extends an invitation to Rob, and together the pair attempt to navigate the winding back roads of rural England, impersonating popular celebrities such as Michael Caine, Woody Allen and Liam Neeson and bickering along the way.
The illusion of spontaneous interplay between Coogan and Brydon is faultless; the progression of the tour seems to happen on its own, as if Winterbottom's camera were just riding along.
The joy of this small, unimportant contest is weirdly addictive; you come out of the film as if from a concert, playing the music of false voices in your head.
Think The Odd Couple with sartorial style and more bickering. Add hints of truisms about middle age, sex, family, mortality and the limits of friendship and The Trip reveals itself to be more than it initially appears.
