If you're still hankering for a good laugh 14 months after watching Kill List then Ben Wheatley knows your pain - he directed and co-wrote the nihilistic thriller and says it took its toll on him too. Needing some light relief, Wheatley has followed Kil List with a comedy, but, this being Wheatley, it's of the black-as-tar variety. And, just like with tar, you may feel you need to scrub yourself after Sightseers. If it's a date movie, you need to know your other half's sense of humour very well.
Tina (Lowe) is a 34-year-old dog obsessive who lives at home with her domineering and sympathy-milking mother (Davies) and has never had "a boy in her room". This is a life of quiet desperation, but all that is about to change with the arrival of Chris (Oram). He's a caravan enthusiast and aspiring writer who's bringing Tina on holiday with him to some of his favourite places like Crich Tramway Museum, Keswick Pencil Museum and the Ribblehead Viaduct - think school trip meets erotic odyssey. While Tina's mum - more worried about losing a slave than a daughter - thinks all this is happening too fast, too soon, these two misfits seem like the perfect match, ready for any little bump in the road that comes their way. And there'll be a few of them between the Midlands and North Yorkshire.
Written by stars Lowe and Oram, Sightseers started out as a TV pilot but was rejected by small screen bosses for being too dark. Their loss - this road movie romance about co-dependency issues, repression, two-for-one vouchers, racy knitting and getting things off your chest has pulled into its own little berth in the caravan park of British movie cultdom and will undoubtedly lead to bigger things for its creators.
If you like to be surprised by a movie it's best not to watch the trailer, suffice to say those two great aphorisms 'It's funny how they all meet' and 'If you want to know me come and live with me' play a big part in the plot. The tone may take a little bit of getting used to, but Lowe and Oram have brought two brilliant characters to life - fascinating dullards who make us question our perceptions and are amusing as they are unnerving.
You'll never talk to strangers on holiday in quite the same way again.
Harry Guerin
