Film

The Trip to Spain

Name: The Trip to Spain
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Released: 2017
Cast: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Marta Barrio, Claire Keelan, Tom Clegg

Buddy comedy

Two comedians drive through Spain doing what they do best: compete for laughs over restaurant meals while wrestling with aging, friendship and the gap between their stage selves and who they actually are. It's funny and unexpectedly tender, perfect for anyone who loves character-driven comedy that earns its sentiment.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love dry, competitive banter between two comic performers who riff on impressions, food and their own vanity, and you don't mind the gaps where the scenery does the talking.

Skip it if you want plot momentum, since the chat is the whole show and the meandering stretches between meals and bickering run long.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a leisurely, episodic ride of roughly two hours, with long unhurried scenes, more sunshine than urgency, and the patience to let jokes land slowly.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Trip to Italy2014

The preceding film in the series, with the same formula at its peak: perfect restaurant scenes, duelling impressions, and genuine warmth beneath the competitive banter. Essential context and just as good.

But If you haven't seen The Trip to Greece, you'll be watching these out of order, which muddies some character arcs. The films do build on each other.

In Bruges2008

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two hitmen stranded in a medieval city, mixing dark comedy with real philosophical weight. Written by Martin McDonagh with the same balance of cruelty and heart.

But It's much darker and more violent than The Trip. The tonal shifts between funny and bleak can feel abrupt if you're not ready for them.

Curb Your Enthusiasm2000

Larry David improvising his way through social disasters with the same comedic DNA: awkward dinners, competitive friendship, and the agony of pretence. Endlessly inventive and hilarious.

But Episodes vary wildly in quality. The humour is crueller and less generous than Coogan and Brydon's, which some find exhausting over nine seasons.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Trip to Spain

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Stalker1979

Both are road movies about two men in conversation, but where The Trip finds meaning in present friendship, Stalker uses travel to excavate what we're really searching for beneath the surface.

Andrei Tarkovsky's sci-fi meditation on desire and meaning: two men journey through a mysterious Zone toward a room that grants wishes. Long, patient, hypnotic. A film about wanting things that reframes what travel movies can be.

But It's 163 minutes of philosophical Russian cinema with minimal plot. If you watch The Trip for laughs and warmth, this will feel punishingly slow and abstract.

The Trip to Greece2020

The third film closes the trilogy with real poignancy. If you love Spain, you'll want to see how their relationship resolves. Quieter and more reflective than its predecessors.

But It loses some of the energy that made Italy sing. The impressions feel less fresh, and the road-trip novelty has worn off by the third time around.

Philomena2013

Coogan delivers genuine dramatic weight as a cynical journalist paired with Judi Dench in a true story about faith, loss and prejudice. Shows why he's more than comedy.

But It's entirely sincere in a way that might feel jarring if you know him mainly from Trip's ironies. Slower-paced and heavier throughout.

Sideways2004

Two men on a wine country trip, mostly talking and bickering while processing middle-aged regret. The spiritual ancestor of the Trip films, with Paul Giamatti's self-loathing as the motor.

But It's slower and more melancholic. There's less comedy for comedy's sake, which might feel like a slog if you want consistent laughs.

The Knick2014

Steven Soderbergh's dizzy, propulsive period drama about a hospital in 1900s New York. Clive Owen and André Holland in a crackling odd-couple relationship with genuine stakes.

But It's nothing like The Trip tonally—surgery scenes are graphic, the mood is driven and dark. Expecting comedy-drama will leave you confused.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things2020

Charlie Kaufman's film about a couple's road trip that slowly reveals itself as something far stranger. Brilliant, unsettling, and obsessive in a way that rewards attention.

But It's deliberately opaque and asks you to do interpretive work. If you want clear narrative satisfaction, you'll feel frustrated and possibly annoyed.

Veep2012

Armando Iannucci's viciously intelligent political satire about a veep and her chaos-generating team. Rapid-fire insults and character comedy from a comedy mastermind.

But The characters are almost uniformly awful, and the comedy never lets you rest. It's exhausting by design, which is exactly what some people dislike about it.

Le Week-End2013

Both use travel and meals as the architecture for examining long relationships, but where Coogan and Brydon's friendship survives and deepens, this marriage drowns in accumulated resentment.

Roger Michell's film of Pinter's play: an older couple return to Venice where they honeymooned, and their marriage unravels in real time. Sean Finney and Lindsay Duncan are devastating. Comedy and catastrophe braided together.

But It's bleak in ways The Trip never is. The marriage is failing, the dialogue is sparse and wounding, and there's no redemption—just brutal honesty.

Boiling Point2021

Both films understand that restaurants are where people reveal who they are—but Boiling Point puts you in the pressure cooker while The Trip watches from the table with wine and irony.

Jesuthasan Chinnathambi's restaurant kitchen film: a dinner service shot in real time as a chef and his brigade face chaos, class, and their own fragility. Kinetic, visceral, performed live on set. Everything The Trip's restaurants imply made explicit.

But It's a single ninety-minute take of controlled panic with minimal plot. If you want narrative momentum or character arcs, you'll feel trapped.