You probably have to be in the right mood to appreciate “Sightseers” – a mood that involves dark thoughts, perseverance and a grisly sense of humor.
If you ever imagine gruesome deaths befalling people who annoy you in the course of your day – people you may not even know but who instantly rub you the wrong way – well, this is the movie for you.
The patience comes in as you wait for director Ben Wheatley and the film’s writers, Steve Oram and Alice Lowe (who are also its stars), to establish their premise and then yank it in an unexpected direction. Once they do, the laughs fall quickly into line.
Initially, this seems like a dry, quiet comedy about a doofus named Chris (Oram), who is taking his relationship with a woman named Tina (Lowe) to the next level. Despite her mother’s misgivings – and her mother (Eileen Davis) has plenty of those – Tina sets off on a vacation trip with Chris in his prized caravan (a camper, to us Yanks).
Not just any vacation trip, however: Chris, who claims he’s collecting material for the novel he plans to write, has mapped out a minute-by-minute itinerary that takes them to some of the cheesiest tourist attractions in the British Isles, including a tramway museum and a pencil factory. Meanwhile, the sheer romance of the excursion, he hopes, will propel him and Tina to a previously unattained state of bliss.
This review continues on my website.