The Trip ***

When his girlfriend backs out of a planned trip to great northern England restaurants for The Observer, actor/writer/producer Steve Coogan must take his best friend and source of eternal aggravation, Rob Brydon. This movie documents their trip and conversations along the way on their week-long road trip. There are moments of high hilarity, as Brydon trots out his repertoire of impressions, and they both speculate about the lives of the famous writers whose homes and heaths they visit. But there's always an undercurrent, as Coogan indifferently beds a succession of women and deals on the phone with his ex-wife, son, agents, assistants, and girlfriend on assignment in the U.S., and confronts his middle age and stalled career. It's an interesting slice of life effort with a bleak final image, of Coogan in his posh London apartment, alone, surveying the foggy view.