‘The Travel Companion’ - Review
Entitlement is a silent killer, one that takes its time chipping away at its target. A slow decay that can ruin even the strongest friendships. Travis Wood and Alex Mallis explore this in The Travel Companion through the descent of Simon (Tristan Turner), an independent filmmaker accustomed to the perk of free flights, courtesy of his best friend and airline scheduler, Bruce (Anthony Overbeck). When Bruce meets Beatrice (Naomi Asa), another creative, just as the annual travel companion decision looms, Simon’s carefully constructed world shatters. He sees Beatrice as an existential threat to his relationship with Bruce and, more critically, to his beloved free flights. The film explores the boundaries of friendship and what tears them apart. And while my own love of traveling is similar to Simon’s – though not to the degree of being obsessed with a friend’s free flight perk – I once found myself consumed by an obsession: Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.
Flying is probably the best form of travel there is. Sure it’s polluting as heck, but for a couple hours or maybe a couple days, depending on your destination, you get to experience something that humans at one point could only dream of. And if you get a window seat, you can see things that people in the aisle seats can’t! The one thing I hate about flying though is the airport experience, so I don’t understand why Simon was so hung up on flying standby. I understand that as an indie filmmaker he didn’t have a lot of capital to throw at flying. But standby has to be worse than flying basic economy, which doesn’t come with any perks itself, but at least you’re guaranteed a seat on the plane. On a couple of occasions Simon either misses his flight or does not get a seat at all. Sure, Simon was getting to fly all over the place for free and get footage for his documentary, but at what cost? For starters, a lot of time. Simon’s obsession with free flights also costs him friendship.
It’s a bit ironic that Simon’s personal film is supposed to be about what connects humans considering the actual movie, The Travel Companion, is about what drives people apart. Simon's seemingly only friend, Bruce, is a quiet and kind man who we don't learn all that much about. Beyond knowing that he works for the airline and books Simon’s flights, we just know he and Simon have been best friends since childhood. The one time Simon does show interest in Simon beyond his work perks is on his birthday. Simon gives him a gift along with a card, which is nice of Simon, but Bruce’s reaction to this gift is awkward and you can feel him bristle up through the screen. This isn’t really a gift; it’s a bribe. This is a genius design of the script as it highlights Simon's selfish and narcissistic tendencies. Bruce tolerates Simon’s constant broaching of staying on as the designated travel companion. Simon will often bring it up under the guise of other topics such as taking big international trips with Bruce or "Hey, did you see that girl again," that girl being Beatrice.
Bruce is cagey at first about his budding romance with Beatrice, and rightfully so. He's been friends with Simon since the third grade, so he knows his friend has the tendency to fly off the handle. But that only makes Simon even more anxious and when their relationship takes off and Beatrice starts spending more time around them, Simon can't help but make comments and ask questions about the travel benefits for the next year. His anxiety gets so bad that he weirdly confronts Beatrice in public as she is working on directing a commercial! While Simon does act like a complete jerk, I can’t help but identify with his plight.
One of my earliest childhood memories is riding around in the car with my parents and my dad would be playing a cassette tape, Highlights from The Phantom of the Opera. That tape went triple platinum in his car. He’d sing it around the house. I’d ask my parents questions about the show over and over. One day that tape went missing. Years went by and I was in the fifth grade when I happened to find it in a box in the attic at my grandparents house. I ran downstairs to their hi-fi system, put the tape in and pressed play. From that day on, until I ruined that tape, the Phantom of the Opera truly was there inside my mind. I begged to go see the show on Broadway, finding ways to weave it into casual conversation to keep it on everyone's mind. My grandpa made the mistake of telling me we'd go one day. I'd begin to ask him about it only to be told, "one day," over and over. I wanted to perform the title song with a girl I had a crush on during a school assembly. I visited the website almost every day on my grandparents’ dial up internet, trying to watch videos about the show and listen to clips of the music. They’d never load because the connection was so slow.
The 2004 film adaptation was coming out and that only fueled my desire. Promo images of Gerard Butler as the Phantom were plastered all over my bedroom walls, until my dad came in, saw what I’d done and went to get the dictionary. He came back and read to me the definition of obsessed. I couldn't believe he did not support my love of this musical, a love that he created. I tore the pictures down in anger. I didn’t think I had an obsession back then, but as an adult, I know and can admit that I did. The movie premiered in December 2004, and my grandpa took me and my sister to see it. A few years later, I finally got to see the show when it toured and stopped in DC. My grandpa got us tickets; he was the only one who supported my obsession. I’d see the show several more times after that, even the original production in London months before the COVID-19 pandemic would cause it to close forever. I know the whole show; every line of dialogue, every song lyric. I could do a one-man performance of it. I didn’t ruin any relationships with this obsession or hurt anyone. My bringing it up was most likely no more than a slight annoyance to anyone who would listen. Outside of that, it gave me a great appreciation and love for theatre and the arts as a whole. Not all obsessions are unhealthy.
Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Simon, the narrative of obsession takes a far more toxic turn. Not as toxic as the Phantom trying to kill people to get with the woman he loves, but his relentless, selfish fixation completely alienates the only two people in his life. The film is a very uncomfortable watch, especially when you know you've almost gone down the same path. It's almost horrific and the second hand embarrassment is palpable because it brought back so many memories of my own obsession. The performance of Tristan Turner as Simon really carries this film. The script is clever, subtly using Bruce as a personification of Simon’s shortcomings as a friend. However, the plotting is very thin and it wears itself out early on, but you keep watching to see how often Simon can bring up going on a trip or outright beg for standby status. I wonder if my parents kept a tally of how many times I brought up Phantom.
At the end of the film, it seems almost as if Simon is rewarded for his bad behavior. He's lost his best friend and his travel benefits, yet he's able to finish his film and get it into a festival. The script doesn't deal with the fallout of his relationship with Bruce, which I felt was a weird choice. Was he punished enough for his actions? The Travel Companion squeezes every drop of uncomfortable social comedy from its premise, almost reminiscent of an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but ultimately, it lacks Curb's cathartic sense of resolution. It’s a film that lacks neatness, but succeeds for its ability to serve as a raw mirror to the darker side of human desire.