The Trip to Greece: a review by Nick Scott

Nick Scott throws off the Lockdown Blues when he visits Downtown Tauranga’s Rialto Cinema to see The Trip to Greece.

They say that laughter really is good for your mental health, so I was looking forward to seeing the latest offering from Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.

Steve Coogan is a good actor and a well known Comedian, but he requires another actor to be the foil for his humour. Rob Brydon is the ideal person for the job. A comedian well known in Britain, Brydon has starred with Coogan in three “Trip” movies; The Trip (around England), The trip to Italy and the Trip to Spain, There are other characters in the film but none of them is essential to the story.

I’ve seen them all and was wondering if the next one would be a disappointment. I need not have worried as these two have a unique and very clever kind of humour. The script writers deserve a large part of the credit, as most of the humour is verbal; although there is more visual humour in this movie than in the previous three.

The camera work is always a high point in these films and the Greek trip has the most beautiful scenery.

The actual journey the two comedians take follows the path of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. There is one mythological point in which a scene from the Odyssey is played out in the crossing of the Styx river, complete with the ferry, navigated by the dark boatman. There are many other examples where the viewer is educated on Greek history and culture, as you see Coogan and Brydon trying to outdo each other with their knowledge.

There are lots of pop culture references, with Coogan singing songs from the musical Greese or arguing about the value of various Abba songs, all with some connection to the story.

There are some other things to look out for. The opening of the film with a dark screen and Steve Coogan reading a portion of the Odyssey. This blends into the first comical banter between Coogan and Brydon. The important thing when seeing one of these films is not to try and read too much into it, just relax and let the comedy go to work.

So I really enjoyed The Trip to Greece. Don’t try to treat it like a serious drama. It is just comedy, and comedy well done.

Nick’s ticket to The Trip to Greece was generously provided by Rialto Cinema, Tauranga. Check here for what’s on when at the Rialto https://www.rialtotauranga.co.nz/

Nick Scott Nick Scott has a B.A from The University of Waikato where he studied film under Sam Edwards. Nick has retained a keen interest in cinema. He studied Te Reo Maori at Te Wananga O Aotearoa part-time for 3 years and then from 2014 to 2016 Nick collaborated in writing “The Traveller’s guide to Maori Place Names”. Chapter Two of Nick’s novel “Temple’s Job’ on ARTbop WORDS publishes this Saturday (the first Saturday of the month).