Tommy Wirkola is no stranger to dark humor. The Norwegian filmmaker has already carved a place in the black hearts of horror fans everywhere with the dementedly wonderful humor in both Dead Snow films and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, the latter of which has seen a steadily growing cult following over the years. His frenetic energy always makes for an exciting watch, even if they tend to be all over the place in terms of narrative. With The Trip, Wirkola reunites with his What Happened to Monday star Noomi Rapace to deliver a riotous, ridiculous ride of a film with plenty of twists and turns (and poop) to boot.
In The Trip, soap opera director Lars (Aksel Hennie, The Cloverfield Paradox) and aspiring actress Lisa (Noomi Rapace, Prometheus) are a dysfunctional married couple who head to a remote cabin to help rekindle their dwindling romance. Unfortunately for Lisa, Lars’ intentions are more sinister, as he has plans to murder her and collect the money from her life insurance policy. Unfortunately for Lars, Lisa is a lot more capable of defending herself than he thought possible. And unfortunately for both of them, an even greater threat looms in the area that will force them to put their differences aside and work together to survive one hellish night.
Playing like a bloodier version of The War of the Roses, The Trip is a tricky movie to discuss, if only because there are so many twists and turns that the film takes (even early on), that to reveal certain plot developments would ruin the many, many surprises the film has in store. Suffice it to say there are moments involving double-crosses, a lawnmower, a Nazi who doesn’t know who Anne Frank is (“it’s just like that book you read about the little girl hiding in the attic,” the Nazi says) and one very large penis. That’s just to name a few!
What the film could have used is a swifter hand in the editing room. At nearly two hours, The Trip goes on for far too long. The film is structured in a way so that every time a new bit of information is disclosed, we go back in time a few days to see how those plot developments came to be. This is all well and good the first couple of times, but The Trip dips into that well one too many times, giving the narrative an unnecessarily episodic quality. These sequences could have been shortened, but as it stands the film feels self-indulgent at times. It’s also a film that revels in poor taste (see the aforementioned poop reference), but a portion in the second act that delves into threats of sexual assault and anal rape feels tonally out of place. It’s not played for laughs, but it almost feels too dark for this dark comedy.
Hennie and Rapace are simply delightful in their roles as the bickering protagonists, with each character delivering a hefty amount of passive-aggressive barbs to each other over the smallest things in order to twist the metaphorical knife where it hurts the most. These acidic barbs become even more hilarious once they’re juxtaposed with the ridiculousness of their increasingly outlandish situation. While the exchanges between Lars and Lisa are funny, the film never loses sight of their humanity, making for some unexpectedly touching moments between the couple amidst all the chaos. It’s also refreshing to see Rapace, after excelling in multiple serious roles, get to let loose and have some fun.
The Trip is a wild, zany ride that Wirkola and his cast are 100% committed to. It’s unfortunate that Netflix doesn’t seem to be promoting The Trip at all (it hits the streaming platform on October 15th), as it has the makings of being an ultimate crowd-pleaser. It wouldn’t be surprising if we get an English-language remake at some point in the near future, but until then this version is readily available for your demented pleasure. At the risk of being cliché: you’ll want to take this trip.
