The Trip to Italy provides Steve Coogan with another opportunity to return the best role of his career: Himself. Sure fans of BBC television may make an argument for Coogan’s alter ego, Alan Partridge, as his best character but for me nothing beats it when he just is Steve Coogan.
And the number of films he’s played him are unprecedented: The original incarnation of The Trip, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bully Story, this go around with The Trip to Italy and a brilliant little short film in Coffee and Cigarettes where he and Alfred Molina discover they may be distant cousins then proceed to have an ego fueled pissing contest.
Steve’s version of Steve is not a perfect person. He is a shallow womanizer who is emotionally distant. He has a deep jealous streak that he never puts in effort towards hiding. When his trip mate, the hilariously unstable Rob Brydon, announces that he landed a role in an upcoming Michael Mann film, Steve looks sickened and immediately starts picking apart the achievement. Not the best quality in a friend but a very honest portrayal of a flawed person who wants to be the most famous one at the table at all times.
And what makes this self-parody so absorbing is that we don’t know where the line between reality and performance lies. Or if there is a line at all. I deeply doubt that these films are presenting a completely unfiltered glimpse at Steve Coogan, the man. That would be near-impossible as one of the best qualities of being vain is that you don’t know that you’re vain. But is Coogan working out his own shortcomings in these films? There does seem to be an arch to it and he’s becoming more of a human as he grows older. Like his mushroom risotto, it’s a work in progress.
I like to believe that he is parodying celebrity in its entirety while simultaneously speaking to the importance of friendship, pasta, Alanis Morissette and wine.
In fact The Trip to Italy allows Brydon and Coogan to return to the road and speak on a number of important issues. The film is an interesting project, a sequel to the equally hilarious The Trip. Both films are culled down versions of a six episode series that runs on the BBC. Both series have been helmed by director Michael Winterbottom, the man who is usually the one to allow Coogan to be Coogan (He also directed Tristram Shandy).
The setup is quite simple: The two men are hired by a magazine to go on a culinary journey, this time to Italy. They arrive at the destination, eat some spectacular looking food and wax poetic about everything from Lord Byron to how unintelligible Tom Hardy is as Bane. A travelling version of My Dinner with Andre. Largely improvised, the two friends constantly try to one up each other which usually leads to comedic gold.
And of course The Trip to Italy pokes fun at the fact that it is one of those bloody sequels. But it strives (quite literally) to stand more on the ground where The Godfather II came from than to just add to the pile of repetition. The film succeeds as it is a welcome continuation that allows us a real glimpse into the fake lives of real people. I’d take another trip anytime.