The Trip To Spain

MOVIE
  • 16 Sep - 22 Sep, 2017
  • Mag The Weekly
  • Time Out


The Trip To Spain begins with Steve (Steve Coogan) flying in from New York, with a crisp short haircut and an ego boosted by an Academy Award nomination for screenwriting “Philomena,” while Rob (Rob Brydon) is enjoying domesticity and child-rearing about as much as one is able when one of the children is two. (Coogan and Brydon play their ostensible selves, while the people in their lives, including Coogan’s “son” Joe, are fictional characters played by actors).

They both receive a joint offer from two different publications that will ask the duo to pose as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza at a photo shoot during the trip. Steve calls Los Angeles to talk to his agent about capitalising on his screenwriting success, he’s found that said agent has left the firm, and he’s now being handled by his old agent’s former assistant. Later on, Rob is surprised to get a call from Los Angeles from, Steve former agent, who promises Rob the moon, including a shot at hosting the Golden Globes.

Insofar as they’re pertinent it’s only relative to the fact that the actors, and their characters, are turning fifty, and that’s a stock-taking time. As the men travel from England to Spain early in the film, Rob can be seen working in his cabin on his Roger Moore impersonation. This pays off late in the movie when Steve tries to show off his knowledge of Spanish history. It’s only here that the movie pulls the trick of extending a joke until it’s not funny and then extending it further so it becomes not just funny again but funnier.

VERDICT
You’ll be on board, and you should be, because the movie has all the goods.

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