Monday, 12 August 2013

The Trip - Will's Review

Another tough one this week, as we have very little in the form of plot to comment on.

In the middle of a divorce, advertising director, Paul (Peter Fonda) decides to experiment with LSD. Quite sensibly, he decides to take his first trip in the company of a sober friend, John, who uses the drug himself.

After a quick visit to John's dealer, Max (Dennis Hopper), its back to John's place to take the drug.

The rest of the movie deals with Paul's trip; a sequence of disconnected scenes in which he has sex (both real, within the context of the film, and imaginary), gets chased through a variety of landscapes, and wonders around LA, visiting the homes of acquaintances and strangers alike, interspersed with colourful 60's visuals.

And that's really all there is too it.

The thing that struck me most about the movie was how hard it is to believe that it was actually made in the 60s; a lot of the colours and design work looks like a recent parody of the decade - particularly Max's drugs den, which looks almost exactly like Austin Powers' 'pad' - all psychedelic swirls and giant stylised flowers.

Aside from that, I'm struggling to find anything to say; Fonda and Hopper give solid enough performances (as you'd expect) but Nicholson's script gives them little to work with.

I can't say 'avoid' because it does do out what it set out to do, but I will warn you that it is a flat, in interesting, disjointed movie; probably best left for people with a strong interest in LSD.

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