“THE TRIP TO SPAIN”
★½
Cast:
Steve Coogan, Bob Brydon, Marta Barrio (Unrated) 1:51
Michael Winterbottom’s “The Trip…” movies always hold out the promise of new experiences — cities to explore, dishes to savor, historic and literary landmarks — even as they adhere to a pattern of repetition and reassurance. Whether this is part of their charm or evidence of their limitations is entirely up to each viewer.
It would be a pleasure to write that “The Trip to Spain” — the third feature adapted from the Winterbottom-directed sitcom — amounts to more than another heavily improvised jaunt through some picturesque European country in the witty, selfaggrandizing company of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, gamely playing fictionalized versions of themselves. But this latest adventure is the least satisfying of the three.
After touring England’s Lake District in “The Trip” (2010) and driving along the Amalfi Coast in “The Trip to Italy” (2014), Coogan and Brydon now hop a ferry to Spain, docking at Santander and heading south through Basque Country en route to Málaga.
Brydon is once again writing restaurant reviews, but any writing is just a pretext for several days’ worth of haute cuisine, gorgeous scenery and palatial digs, padded out with dueling celebrity impressions, surprise dream sequences and downtime spent agonizing over family dramas and career developments.
Even over plates of succulent-looking shrimp and Iberian chorizo, it takes Brydon barely 10 minutes to trot out his Michael Caine impression — a reliably funny bit that is capably matched by Coogan’s channeling of Ian McKellen and, unexpectedly, a hilarious, pouty-lipped riff on Mick Jagger.
But a certain exhaustion sets in well before the end of the film, collapsing any meaningful distinction between camera-hogging self-indulgence and critical scrutiny. For long stretches, these hosts are simply coasting, talking nonstop but never communicating.