Sightseers

Cast of Characters:

Tina - Alice Lowe

Chris - Steve Oram

Director - Ben Wheatley

Screenplay - Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, & Amy Jump

Not Rated

      When it comes to dry, black comedies, no one does it better than the Brits. Whether it's parodies such as Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, In Bruges, Death At a Funeral, or all the way back to the Kings of British dry comedies, Monty Python, the British have always had a way of combining oddball humor with sharp, witty dialogue down to a perfection. In the late spring of 2012, the newest British black comedy, Sightseers, opened at the Cannes Film Festival. A year later, it has now opened up in a limited release.

      Tina (Alice Lowe) and Chris (Steve Oram) are a thirty-something year old couple from England going on their first holiday (Brit speak for vacation) together. Tina's live a bit of a sheltered life, living with her passive-aggressive mother who thinks nothing of Chris. Chris is an aspiring writer wanting to take Tina away for a bit to visit certain sites around the British Isles (the Crich Tramway Museum, the Ribblehead Viaduct, the Keswick Pencil Museum, etc.) with his Abbey Oxford Caravan.

      Following a tragic accident, Tina and Chris's finds their own dream vacation shaken up, yet they insist on not letting that event get in the way of their vacation. However, after a few more irritating incidents, something within Chris snaps, revealing a side of him Tina would've never expected.

      Opening at Cannes in May of 2012, then in the UK around November of the same year, Sightseers finally was released by IFC Films in the U.S. this year in May. While it is only in limited release, if it does happen to be playing at theater near you, I can't recommend this film enough as I laughed non-stop from beginning to end. This film is witty, sharp, hysterically funny, violent, crazy, and absurd all rolled into one, and my crazy, demented self loved every second of it. Director Ben Wheatley along with writers/co-stars Alice Lowe and Steve Oram (who also received additional material from Amy Jump) do an impeccable job establishing a darkly funny and uneasy tone through the couple's twisted intimacy. Committing their maddening acts of violence and then reacting with such proper politeness (would expect anything else from Brits?) adds much more to the humor. There's a particularly funny moment between the two when Tina realizes what her boyfriend's capable of and she ultimately rationalizes it as eliminating carbon footprints (fewer people = fewer emissions). Who knew serial killers had such an eco-friendly conscience?

      Director Ben Wheatley has now made three feature length films, and up until this film, I had yet to hear of him. Having now seen Sightseers, I'm definitely interested in seeing his two past movies, Kill List and Down Terrace from a couple years back. Granted, I'm sure there will be a number of moviegoers that find the extremely dark humor a bit of a turnoff, but this is by far one of the funnier comedies I've seen in some time. The writing is as sharp and clever as I've seen yet this year, both Lowe and Oram turn in two pitch-perfect, deadpan performances, and the final moment of the movie had me nearly spitting my drink out from laughter. Just a side note about the rating. Despite not being rated, this is obviously a film with R-rated material, so keep that in mind for those of you with reservations. I give Sightseers an A (★★★★).