The Trip to Italy
IFC Films | Release Date: August 15, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicAug 13, 2014
By the time the curtains draw to a bittersweet close, you’ll walk out feeling rejuvenated, satisfied, well replenished in humor and culture, and already planning your own trip to Italy. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyAug 13, 2014
While this sequel lacks the novelty of the first course, it's just as soulful and silly. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyAug 14, 2014
Brydon and Coogan's discourse over breakfast, lunch and dinner is captured with a casualness that makes the eavesdropping delicious. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 27, 2014
As funny as the first go-round, more beautiful to look at, and better conceived. Read full review
90
VarietyScott FoundasJan 27, 2014
Now and then, Winterbottom nudges the movie in the direction of narrative... But even when it’s just ambling about, The Trip to Italy casts a warm, enveloping spell. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 28, 2014
If The Trip to Italy begins shakily, it ends with expansive bliss, a father and son reconnecting off the shores of Capri as Gustav Mahler’s art song “Ich Bin Der Welt Abhanden Gekommen (I Am Lost to the World)” sends everyone heart-stoppingly home. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 28, 2014
He’s like a globe-trotting Richard Linklater. And with Winterbottom’s first-ever sequel, his “Trip” films now rival Linklater’s “Before” series in charting how a twosome evolves over time. Plus, they’re bloody hilarious. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyAug 14, 2014
If you go in for allusive British humor that builds slowly from dry to uproarious, as executed by two absolute masters of the form, The Trip To Italy will work for you, I believe. I also think the film, directed, like the prior one, by the astute Michael Winterbottom, is a somewhat smoother trip than the first. Read full review
88
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreAug 12, 2014
A leg up on the first “Trip,” an altogether more delightful vacation with two blokes who might wear us and each other out along the way. But then, that’s half the fun. Read full review
83
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanSep 25, 2014
Winterbottom has darkened the tone: The final scene takes place during a golden sunset that brings no closure to either man. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 28, 2014
A second helping of a satisfying dish. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 22, 2014
Michael Winterbottom, who also directed “The Trip,” is known for his avant-garde cinematic ways, but with these films he wisely sets down the camera and for the most part lets the actors play out their improvs. Read full review
82
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeAug 14, 2014
Winterbottom and cinematographer James Clarke use the gloss of both food porn and travel porn to occasionally distract us from the darker elements of the story, in the same way that Coogan and Brydon will turn to humor to lighten up their roiling inner conflicts. In this case, however, both the sugar coating and the bitter pill are a treat. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 27, 2014
Not a lot happens, other than eating between small bits of drama and large doses of humor. If you saw the first film, you know how good that can be. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid DenbyAug 25, 2014
They also try to one-up each other as men, vying for professional success and for the attention of the invariably lovely women they meet. Sharks have duller teeth than Coogan and Brydon. Both movies, in fact, are about the impossibility — and the necessity — of male friendship. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 21, 2014
Any movie with these two comics is a trip and a half. How about France for the next one? A perfect way to revisit Michael Caine. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 18, 2014
I am not the first to make this joke, but The Trip to Italy may live up to the “Godfather: Part II” analogy, at least insofar as it’s better and tighter than its predecessor. Read full review
80
NPRBob MondelloAug 16, 2014
What's not fictional in their Trip to Italy is the gorgeous Italian coastline director Michael Winterbottom has them romping through, or the food they barely notice (though it'll have you famished by film's end), or the yacht they commandeer, bellowing all the while ... Read full review
80
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekAug 12, 2014
Now we know just what to expect from Coogan and Brydon, although as long as you're willing to settle in for the ride, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJan 27, 2014
The real richness of the movie, though, comes well in, as the improvised script gets around to deeper anxieties of aging and avoidance. Read full review
79
Film.comWilliam GossJan 27, 2014
The Trip to Italy is plenty enjoyable for fans of the first one and these two, but by the end, it also has the consistency of reheated comfort food. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAug 27, 2014
By the end of this affable little film, you’ll likely crave a bowl of fresh-made pasta in seafood sauce, a glass of Frascati, and a room with a view on the Amalfi coast. (Sigh.) Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 29, 2014
The Trip to Italy doesn't feel entirely new, but there's comfort in familiarity, too. And as Brydon and Coogan note in one discourse, it's the rare sequel (The Godfather: Part II) that's better than its forebear. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyAug 14, 2014
Is The Trip to Italy the second Godfather of comedies, or a retread? Neither, exactly. The concept is no longer fresh, but the scenery on the Amalfi and Sorrento coasts is more transporting, and their convertible Mini Cooper is a more amusing vehicle. Finally, the fact that the only singalong CD for the drive is Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album Jagged Little Pill is an unexpected master stroke. Read full review
75
ObserverMatthew KasselAug 14, 2014
It’s "Sideways" meets "My Dinner With Andre" — a low-key, sensual affair punctuated by off-the-cuff moments of brilliant wit and wordplay — and the result is delectable. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 14, 2014
Like its predecessor, The Trip to Italy flirts with seriousness yet invariably, perhaps rightly, it always goes for the joke, the pun, the fun and the sun. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 14, 2014
As befits its settings, The Trip to Italy aims higher than its predecessor — maybe too high — and isn’t as fresh. I enjoyed it, though. Read full review
70
The DissolveNathan RabinAug 14, 2014
The film lets audiences be third parties in Coogan and Brydon’s dinner conversation. For lovers of words, comedy, and conversation, that’s an awfully hard proposition to pass up. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloAug 13, 2014
It works reasonably well as a film, too, though, provided that one isn’t overly bothered by repetition and a general sense of diminishing returns. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 28, 2014
The wine Coogan and Brydon are opening this time may lack some of the novel fizz of the first one, but The Trip to Italy is like most vacations: a few bumps here and there, but over all too quickly. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithAug 13, 2014
It’s photographically yummy, heaving with sun-dappled vistas and four-star dining. The boys float around a bit in the sea and enjoy homemade pasta while trundling out their impressions of, say, Marlon Brando. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChuck BowenAug 9, 2014
Michael Winterbottom and his gifted actors still haven't quite solved the riddle of portraying social disconnection in a manner that's anything other than sporadically involving. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 14, 2014
Coogan and Brydon make terrific companions for us partially because, at least as they appear onscreen, they’re so amusingly incompatible themselves. Read full review
60
The TelegraphAmber WilkinsonJan 27, 2014
Their improvisation has been honed to the point where the jokes land solidly without losing naturalism. Read full review
58
IndieWireKatherine KilkennyJan 27, 2014
While The Trip to Italy offers all the pleasures of a posh holiday accompanied by two of the most inventive comedians today, the improvisation here lacks the total unexpectedness that the first enjoyed. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 28, 2014
Film anybody's trip to Italy, and it would be more interesting than this, or at least equally boring. Read full review
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