The delightfully escapist Grand Tour twists documentary and fiction in a fanciful adventure through Asia. A story told in classic Hollywood styling is complemented by contemporary travel footage, which director Miguel Gomes threads together with a whimsical journey.
The tour kicks off in 1918 when British expat Edward (Gonçalo Waddington) gets cold feet the day his fiancée Molly (Crista Alfaiate) arrives for their wedding. Aimlessly wandering on a rainy dock in Rangoon, Burma, the pensive look on Edward’s face belies the tropical bouquet he cradles in his arms. Distributing the flowers to anyone within reach, he absconds to Singapore; the first stop on his meandering expedition through Asia.
Edward navigates through bamboo forests and miles of open water as a lost soul; passing through Manila, Bangkok, Shanghai, Osaka, and Saigon. Edward interacts with eccentric characters in each location – Molly’s cocktail chugging cousin, a boy prince, and an opium smoking diplomat (who has his own stool to rest his head). On the run, Edward is never keen to stay in one place too long, leading us along a frantic waltz in and out of their company. Occasionally, a letter from Molly will make it to Edward, professing her love and informing him she’s not far behind.
Edward and Molly’s respective journeys comprise the first and second half of the runtime, respectively. We finally meet Molly on the same Burmese dock where Edward’s journey began. Through a healthy dose of playful happenstance, she’s able to stay hot on the trail of her cowardly beau. Molly is full of tenacity and good spirit, releasing the same distinctive laugh each time she explains her chase to someone. She encounters many of the same places and faces as Edward with a few detours along the way; including a chance encounter with an aggressive cattle rancher at a ship captain’s dinner. It’s through his encounter with Molly that we learn the reason she’s anxious to catch up to her runaway groom.
The narrative is presented in a loving pastiche of 1940s Hollywood fare. Shot in black and white on soundstages, the winner of Best Director at this year’s Cannes Film Festival means to invoke the screwball comedies of Cary Grant, where the woman chases after her man. As Gomes skips through their story, we’re taken on the same passage as Edward and Molly but in present day Asia.
Alternating between the chapters set in 1918 is documentary footage of the same countries shot by Gomes and his crew. Because of the shift in time period and color, the scenes in contemporary Asia feel jarring at first but eventually take on a kind of meditative nature. The footage ranges in subject but evokes curiosity and wonder throughout. The breaks feel a bit like someone showing you footage from their vacation, which is essentially what the footage is.
Edward and Molly’s excursion follows a route popular with travelers in the early twentieth century. Before writing the script, Gomes and his team took the trip themselves; filming the color and intrigue they found on the way. The video fragments as a travelog decoupage that adds texture and dimension.
Much of the footage are performances of folktales told through puppets, costume, and shadow in their countries’ respective customs; uniting the screwball narrative in the ubiquitous tradition of storytelling. Some of the contemporary scenes are used under narration that fills in the gaps of the cat and mouse story while fusing their timeline and ours. There’s contemplation to be found in these digressions, that also include Manilla’s karaoke scene featuring a tearful rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”
There is space and time that separates Edward, Molly, as well as us. The shared journey is what unites the three parties in Grand Tour. It’s a unique piece of escapism that absolves you of keeping tabs on complex plotting. Like a bedtime story, you can relax and allow yourself to be carried away.
