Sightseers Review

• 22nd Nov 2012

Chris (Steve Oram) and Tina (Alice Lowe) are a new couple who head off on a camping trip round north England, taking in some of the landmark museums and sights along the way.

Trouble is, Chris turns out to be a bit unhinged as even the smallest of courtesy crimes seems to get his back up. This leads to what appears to be an accidental death on Chris part. This soon escalates and bodies start to pile, but in so happening Tina soon starts to let go of her own repressed anger and finds her own journey to the dark side. Don’t fret however, as often and brutal as the deaths may seem from time to time, the film takes a fairly black comedy routine along the way.

What starts as a comical look at disfuction in society turns and our own tolerance towards it soon turns inward on the characters as they themselves fail to function even together. In the end you can expect events to get psychologically challanging for both.

Ben Wheatley is the hot favourite UK director at the moment, and his lens work is impeccable for such a small budgeted film. His lead performers 9who also penned the screenplay) do sterling work on camera.

The script does start to complicate the relationship as the characters unfurl, but in the end it leads to perhaps to too many tangled knots. But then ending things on a strange note is perhaps what the director is becoming so adept at. It’s best to let it to get by on with the black humour, Wheatley’s pretty direction and the just plain British bizarreness.

Steven Hurst