The Trip to Greece: Steve Coogan/Rob Brydon Foodie Franchise Finale Hits the Spot
By Kim Hughes
Rating: B+
It’s fitting that the fourth and final installment of director Michael Winterbottom’s “factional” The Trip franchise takes place in the land of Odysseus and democracy — also flaming cheese and Yanni — where mythology and modernity effortlessly coexist.
In Greece, against an eye-wateringly blue-and-white backdrop, it seems natural when Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon blithely trade references to The Iliad and Stan & Ollie as music from the Bee Gees and Philip Glass fills the soundtrack. Here, opposites rule, fact and fiction collide (ergo the beforementioned “factional”), and fourth walls are summarily dismantled. Sort of.
Like its predecessors, The Trip to Greece is a pop culture smorgasbord, complete with the highly anticipated food porn that has powered all the films in this series arguably as much as Coogan and Brydon’s spot-on celebrity impressions and their quippy banter amid swoon-y settings.
This time though, the stakes seem higher, and not just because our heroes — now closer to 60 than 40 and with all the soul-searching that entails — have relaxed into their roles: like an old married couple but with plenty of competitive fizz beneath the manicured surface. Jocular hostility is just another way to make it through a Tuesday intact.
The once-bawdy humour is typically softer, more reflective. Michael Cain bits have been replaced by Werner Herzog. Hot chicks sunbathing on rocks prompt misty-eyed reflection rather than bursts of erotic energy. Yup, our heroes are all grown up... well, except maybe for the lesbian jokes which absolutely, positively had to be included in a film set in Greece. As well as the inevitable but ace Sean Connery bits.
The film’s final act turns our protagonists away from each other and toward their separate lives, and it’s here Winterbottom plunders Homer's epic Odyssey for thematic oomph. As Coogan, beset by bad dreams, comes to terms with mortality, Brydon comes alive in the arms of his wife.
The contrast is meant to be jarring and it successfully underscores the breadth and depth of life itself which is pretty much what all The Trip movies explore in one way or another. Rich pickings for films that are ostensibly comedies. But then, the best comedies always make hay from darkness.
Fans of the series — and that includes me — will enjoy this beautifully shot film and rejoice that its ending scrubs the bitter aftertaste left by the one in The Trip to Spain. This is a high note even as it explores sad things. Winterbottom maintains The Trip to Greece is the final chapter in the series. Forgive me my corniness but… parting is such sweet sorrow. But probably also for the best.
The Trip to Greece. Directed by Michael Wintetbottom. Starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Available to rent or own across all digital and on-demand platforms May 22.