In his brilliant "adaptation" of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, Michael Winterbottom created a self-reflexive parodic movie of the quintessential self-reflexive parodic novel. He couldn't have done it without cast members Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, and all three are back for this less clever and funny semi-sequel. Playing themselves, Coogan and Brydon go on a tour of British restaurants to research a magazine article. Perhaps The Trip is intended as an update of Sterne's A Sentimental Journey, but more often it resembles a road version of My Dinner with Andre, with numerous competing impressions of Michael Caine and Sean Connery plus excursions to literary sites like Coleridge's Cottage in Somerset. Nonetheless, if you're going to be stuck in a car driving on the M6, you could do worse than have this ebullient, bickering pair as company, even if it all ends with platitudes about fame, ambition, loneliness, and family.
109 MINUTES | KENDALL SQUARE
