Sightseers
Go! Dark, dirty, dry and dastardly.
English holidaymakers' loving, murderous rampage.
For the most part, Britain ain't flash. It’s normally grey and wet, full of people with odd accents doing trainspotting and collecting stamps. It’s mostly a bobbly jumper knitted by your Great Aunt, compared to the Tom Ford suits of Hollywood. After Skyfall, a 'British' flick with all the trimmings of Hollywood - flash cars, flash women and flash bang explosions - Sightseers arrives perfectly timed and primed to bring us crashing back to earth, possibly even with our own skulls smashing onto cold rocks...
I'm not simply being aggressive - if this film does nothing else, it re-emphasises just how fragile the human skull is, and how easy it is to crack it open like a soft boiled quail's egg. It's a dark, dark comedic film about a seemingly pedestrian and dowdy English couple that go off on a caravanning trip together and end up murdering more people than is normal for that kind of holiday.
I'm not simply being aggressive - if this film does nothing else, it re-emphasises just how fragile the human skull is, and how easy it is to crack it open like a soft boiled quail's egg. It's a dark, dark comedic film about a seemingly pedestrian and dowdy English couple that go off on a caravanning trip together and end up murdering more people than is normal for that kind of holiday.
The fact that such brutality is amusing stems much from its extraordinarily English tone and tongue-in-cheek frame. Set in the sultry English countryside, it is reminiscent of the magnificent Withnail and I - with similar characteristics of eccentric, parochial Englishness and mundane activities being gifted greater energy than they usually receive or perhaps deserve.
Leading the carnage is ginger-bearded comedian Steve Oram, (The Mighty Boosh) and his co-writer and on screen accomplice, Alice Lowe (Hot Fuzz). Oram's character is played with loveable menace - like a red-haired terrier that will nuzzle its owner with joy but happily bite the face off any mutt that throws it the slightest cross look. Similarly, the seemingly innocent and naive Lowe turns out to be deeply nefarious, her child-like energy making her difficult to dislike. In short, these are two rather sweet murderers, which gives the film all of its heart, purpose and character. While the biggest reaction to this film will likely be to the brutal murders that pepper the story, fundamentally this is about relationships - new, all-consuming love and its first major test on an eventful holiday. The fact that these two are killers is incidental to the fact that they are also (often rather filthy) lovers. The questions the film asks are these: how far would you go for the person that you are head-over-heels for? And is there anything they could do that would turn you off them?
Leading the carnage is ginger-bearded comedian Steve Oram, (The Mighty Boosh) and his co-writer and on screen accomplice, Alice Lowe (Hot Fuzz). Oram's character is played with loveable menace - like a red-haired terrier that will nuzzle its owner with joy but happily bite the face off any mutt that throws it the slightest cross look. Similarly, the seemingly innocent and naive Lowe turns out to be deeply nefarious, her child-like energy making her difficult to dislike. In short, these are two rather sweet murderers, which gives the film all of its heart, purpose and character. While the biggest reaction to this film will likely be to the brutal murders that pepper the story, fundamentally this is about relationships - new, all-consuming love and its first major test on an eventful holiday. The fact that these two are killers is incidental to the fact that they are also (often rather filthy) lovers. The questions the film asks are these: how far would you go for the person that you are head-over-heels for? And is there anything they could do that would turn you off them?
Ben Wheatley's direction of the movie is sharp, clean and neat, like a well-trimmed piece of human flesh. It could perhaps even be accused of being too efficient with its only 1 hour 30 minute running time, as its short length causes consequential gaps in the storyline that could perhaps have been tied together by a few additional and more narrative scenes - a little more tasty fat to marble the lean meat. The film thrives on the audience's relationship with the lead characters, which excitingly teeters on the tightrope between unbridled disgust and unfettered affection. Just occasionally, when there is a lack of slower-paced scenes, the balance tilts slightly too far towards the negative and the sheen of comedic affection that keeps the heart of the film beating seizes briefly. This stall distracts from an otherwise enthralling jaunt. While it threatens to be terminal, Sightseers is always resuscitated quickly by a cutting gag or a warm observation and once again the film's veins gush unhindered with mischievous abandon.
It might not be a classic, but it is eminently watchable and has characteristics that make it enjoyable on a multitude of levels. It will feed your thirst for senseless violence while warming your heart. Not many films can claim to do that.
So go, particularly if you have taste for dark wit and like your love stories to come with a snazzy British twang.
It might not be a classic, but it is eminently watchable and has characteristics that make it enjoyable on a multitude of levels. It will feed your thirst for senseless violence while warming your heart. Not many films can claim to do that.
So go, particularly if you have taste for dark wit and like your love stories to come with a snazzy British twang.
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