Music by America? NOOOOOOOOOO! Didn’t anybody see what those guys did to “The Last Unicorn”? Sure, “The Last Unicorn” was destined to go down in flames anyways, but adding America to the soundtrack certainly didn’t help its plight. But we’ll forgive the filmmakers of “The Trip” for this faux pas as this movie is one of the best told love stories I’ve seen in years. And besides that, there’s a Ready For The World tune, too. Now that’s what I’m talking about, Sheila!
Don’t be fooled by the poster and the title of the film – this really isn’t a road trip movie. Rather the “Trip” in question is the tumultuous relationship between lovers Alan and Tommy that spans two decades. We start off in the 70’s with Alan and Tommy meeting at a party. Tommy is a gay rights activist while Alan is a straight-laced Republican who’s working on a book that’s supposed to reveal the truth about homosexuality. Hitting it off, the two start hanging out together. Alan wants to use Tommy as research for his book and Tommy wants to research Alan’s a*s. Their first couple of meetings are awkward at best, which gives Alan a negative view on homosexuals, a view that turns his book into one of the biggest homophobic diatribes ever. But Alan’s agent is unable to sell it and the book goes unreleased. Meanwhile, Alan has warmed up to Tommy and the two wind up falling in love with each other, carrying on a successful relationship all the way into the 80’s until…Alan’s book finally gets published despite his attempts to bury it.
So well is this film made, written and acted that you’d have to be a pretty big hard a*s not to get pulled into the hilarious and even touching exploits of Alan and Tommy as their lives take the most unpredictable of turns. Try it, you’ll like it!
