Not everyone prepares for a vacation with their spouse by buying a hammer, a hacksaw, duct tape and rope however Lars (Aksel Hennie) is not like most people, and “The Trip,” directed by Tommy Wirkola, is not like most movies. It starts out like this: Lars has planned to kill his wife, Lisa (Noomi Rapace), on their holiday; but he’s foiled when it turns out that Lisa has been planning to bump him off on the same trip. Still, though that sounds like the setup for a good-natured thriller in the “Date Night” vein, it takes about 30 seconds of expository dialogue before “The Trip” reveals itself as a puerile nihilistic mess.
Lars and Lisa’s mutual blood bath becomes a group activity when some uninvited guests including escaped convicts Dave (Christian Rubeck), Roy (Andre Eriksen) and Petter (Atle Antonsen) coincidentally join the party. All of them enthusiastically embrace the ensuing violence and emotional upheaval, especially Rapace who is outstanding at juggling the two. The plot reveals its many twists through flashbacks, crisp editing and an absurd script that never tries to be clever about its own irreverence.
But “The Trip” undoes its own flimsy balance of darkness and drollness by grabbing for cheap material involving genitals and poop which is too bad because its underlying conceit is so much smarter than that, really delightful even! Such ham-handedness turns what should have been a quick jaunty movie into an ordeal. I realized I was only halfway through this two-hour film when it concluded with an extended attempted rape sequence set on New Year’s Eve.
“The Trip” can be fun sometimes too although other movies have done gleeful gore plus psychological torture way more deftly. It also paid Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games” homage that whip-smart commentary about cinematic violence so it did itself no favors there.
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