The Trip

Noomi Rapace and Aksel Hennie play an estranged married couple. They head to their lake house for a weekend getaway. Bad things happen. Spoilers follow. And please, if you watch it on Netflix, watch it in its native Norwegian.

It’s best to go in blind. I knew the two planned to kill one another, but the film expects half of this equation to surprise us.

It aims for Funny Games by way of Quentin Tarantino. Great idea. But director/co-writer Tommy Wirkola’s strength lies in frantic—borderline cartoonish—action that thrills and amuses.

This film proffers multiple scenes where one party restrains another, then engages in a drawn-out exchange. The dialogue isn’t awful, but it’s not Tarantino-level witty either.

Rapace and Hennie give their all. Their innate charisma goes a long way toward holding our interest. Hennie, in particular, makes his horrible character compelling, no small feat.

When the finale arrives, Wirkola shines. We get genuine surprises and a refreshing sense of chaos. But it proves too little too late. This isn’t a poor film so much as an overlong and overextended one. It’s two-hours instead of a tight ninety.