Against her lonely mum's wishes Tina, a nice but dim dog psychologist, joins her fellow Black Country lover Chris on an 'erotic odyssey' through Yorkshire. A romantic idea until we see that this amounts to bad weather, deserted heritage sites and caravan rumpy-pumpy. Oh, and wanton serial killing.
No one can doubt that such a bizarre set up is original, but writer-director Ben Wheatley's third feature chooses these details to form his central gag: Chris and Tina are about the most unlikely Bonnie and Clyde rip-offs imaginable. So, when innocents start to drop off, we're meant to laugh, not only at the brutality of the executions, but also at the constant reminder of who's committing them.
There are definitely some laughs in the black and dry comedy, and there's one brilliant sight gag featuring potpourri, but the central gag wears thin as the death toll mounts. Chris's bloodlust is down to his redundancy (I found this funny), yet Tina kills because she's no good as his muse and thinks it's what he wants from her. But of course this simply heightens Chris's insecurity. Chris calls Tina 'a negative person; a liability'.
The two ne'er-do-wells are played with brutal honesty by Leicestershire lad Steve Oram and Coventry's Alice Lowe (of 'Garth Marenghi' fame), but 'Sightseers' didn't feel like a complete experience. Something lacked. I suspect it was the plot itself. The jokes are well written, but suffer when spoken (nothing to do with the accent). The ending tries to be natural but seemed illogical, and far from being funny, I actually found it quite sad.
As much as I am enthused that this home-grown film exists and has received widespread acclaim, I didn't laugh anywhere near as much as I should have. 'Sightseers' is somewhat funny, not LOL - and whilst a far cry from unmissable, is just about worth watching.
No one can doubt that such a bizarre set up is original, but writer-director Ben Wheatley's third feature chooses these details to form his central gag: Chris and Tina are about the most unlikely Bonnie and Clyde rip-offs imaginable. So, when innocents start to drop off, we're meant to laugh, not only at the brutality of the executions, but also at the constant reminder of who's committing them.
There are definitely some laughs in the black and dry comedy, and there's one brilliant sight gag featuring potpourri, but the central gag wears thin as the death toll mounts. Chris's bloodlust is down to his redundancy (I found this funny), yet Tina kills because she's no good as his muse and thinks it's what he wants from her. But of course this simply heightens Chris's insecurity. Chris calls Tina 'a negative person; a liability'.
The two ne'er-do-wells are played with brutal honesty by Leicestershire lad Steve Oram and Coventry's Alice Lowe (of 'Garth Marenghi' fame), but 'Sightseers' didn't feel like a complete experience. Something lacked. I suspect it was the plot itself. The jokes are well written, but suffer when spoken (nothing to do with the accent). The ending tries to be natural but seemed illogical, and far from being funny, I actually found it quite sad.
As much as I am enthused that this home-grown film exists and has received widespread acclaim, I didn't laugh anywhere near as much as I should have. 'Sightseers' is somewhat funny, not LOL - and whilst a far cry from unmissable, is just about worth watching.