Steve is asked by The Observer to tour the UK's finest restaurants, and when his girlfriend backs out on joining him, he is forced to go with his best friend, Rob.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Amiable, funny and sometimes insightful, The Trip works as both a showcase for the enduring chemistry between stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon and an unexpected perusal of men entering mid-life crises.

To the extent that the man at the wheel (Mr. Coogan) and the guy riding shotgun (Mr. Brydon) are playacting is a question that Mr. Winterbottom and his stars enjoyably bat around.

Add hints of truisms about middle age, sex, family, mortality and the limits of friendship and The Trip reveals itself to be more than it initially appears.

"[6] Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal wrote that while the film "is probably too long", he "would have been happy with an additional half-hour of Steve and Rob doing more impressions".