FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE TRIP
A solid and earnest cast make this gay indie melodrama stand out from similar films
(such as Playing Mona Lisa or I Think I Do ). Beginning in the heady days
of gay liberation in the 1970s, Alan and Tommy (played by Sullivan & Braun,
respectively, a young Kyle MacLaghlan and Brad Pitt) meet at a party thrown by wealthy
and closeted Peter. They are instantly smitten with each other, even though Alan has a
fiancé, the flighty Beverly (Irwin), and he is a conservative Republican writing an
anti-gay diatribe, soon to be the nation’s number one hate book. (Peter is as two
dimensional a villain as gay men are sometimes portrayed in less-than-sensitive movies.)
The zippy one liners fly fast and furious. Even when the film’s tone takes a dark turn as it
moves into the 1980s, its sense of humor is thankfully never lost. Director/writer Swain
has a stronger sense of comedy than drama. And Jill St. John, as Alan’s mother, reveals a
surprising comedic side as she literally steals her scenes plundering Peter’s mansion.
Although Tommy dons one too many frightwigs as the eras change and sometimes the
chronology is a bit off (Beverly is hip to exercise home video several years before the
home video explosion), the pace never slackens and The Trip remains
entertaining throughout even as it veers towards histrionics. KT
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