The history of movies is also a history of armchair tourism, starting in the 19th century with the Lumière Brothers’ one-minute tours of the world. An obvious attraction of Michael Winterbottom’s four, rather lengthier “Trip” movies with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon is that they give you the opportunity to ooh and ahh at striking sites, much as you would on a cruise but without paying full freight and elbowing through hordes of strangers. At their best, the movies offer appealing virtual getaways.
It’s too bad then that “The Trip to Greece” never takes off. Like its predecessors, it hangs on the slimmest of premises: Coogan and Brydon journey to alluring destinations while trading quips, imitating the famous (Sean Connery, etc.), eating stylish chow and meta-riffing on their personas. Coogan is the self-serious performer with grand ambitions, or at least pretensions; Brydon is the somewhat more chill Everyman who goes for easy laughs. They’re competitive, which can be funny but can also be tedious, especially when their hunger for attention feels all consuming.
This journey begins on the archaeological site of Troy in northwestern Turkey with Brydon staring into the camera and, in a passable Richard Burton voice, reciting a snippet from “The Iliad.” Coogan isn’t impressed by the recitation; Brydon isn’t taken with the location. “There’s not a lot here,” he says, scanning the ruins as if looking for the nearest exit. It’s a promising nod at the reality of so much contemporary travel, which finds tourists dutifully shuffling from site to site. Acropolis, check. Temple of Athena at Delphi, check. Coogan and Brydon are shuffling too, just with concierge service.
Soon, the two are on the move, sniping and jesting and explaining the setup. The British newspaper The Observer is paying them to retrace the steps of Odysseus, so next stop: lunch! In a pretty spot in Greece, they teasingly yank each other’s chains, drop cultural references (James Joyce, Harry Potter), perfunctorily coo over the food (“lovely”) and turn to their favorite subject: themselves. As usual, Coogan’s ego gets stroked, bruised and soothed as they discuss whether he looks like Richard Gere (aah, no) and talk about his role as Stan in the movie “Stan & Ollie.”
And so it goes as our heroes eat and joke, drive to the city of Assos, hop a boat to Lesbos and so on, as Monday gives way to Tuesday. To liven things up visually, Winterbottom throws in pretty-as-a-postcard shots, some captured with drones, natch, and adds some unconvincing narrative shadows, folding in a family illness for one of the men and a glance at the Syrian refugee crisis. It’s pleasantly innocuous at first riding shotgun with these two but I found myself progressively irritated by their lack of curiosity about the places they visit. The “Trip” movies have always been self-aware about their own weightlessness, wringing laughs by needling the men and their vanity. That’s as smart as it is convenient; this time, though, it also feels like a cop-out.
Some of my impatience has to do with the pandemic and my wistfulness about the places I’ve been and those I yearn to visit. And this movie, the final one in the series, just isn’t as funny as the others. The larger problem, though, is that by trying to give “The Trip to Greece” some heft, Winterbottom only draws attention to the series’ lack of interest in history, other people, the politics of global tourism and, well, the world. Coogan and Brydon have racked up a lot of miles but to watch them indifferently eat yet another generic haute cuisine meal in yet another interchangeable restaurant is to realize they never really left home, which might be the point but is also a bummer.
The Trip to Greece
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes. Rent or buy on Amazon, iTunes and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
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