Review of Sightseers (2012) by Peter P — 28 Apr 2014

Directed by Ben Wheatley, (Down Terrace (2009), Kill List (2011) and A Field in England (2013)) and produced by Edgar Wright. This black comedy puts a neat little spin on the road trip movie, this sort of thing you'd expect to see in America, in England, we just don't have the roads or mileage to do that, Wheatley manages to do that, and the result is one of the best comedies in years, and one of the funniest too.

Tina (Alice Lowe) and her new boyfriend Chris (Steve Oram) are in love, even though Tina's elderly mother Carol (Eileen Davies) doesn't like him at all. Tina and Chris go on a caravan holiday around tourist sites in England, beginning at the National Tramway Museum in Crich, where Chris runs over a litterbug (Tony Way) who riled him.

The police rule it was an accident, but it clearly wasn't, yet Tina and Chris carry on with their holiday, and the body count goes up nearly everywhere they stop off at, and even Tina gets in on the act, as they head north into the Lake District, but Chris starts having nightmares, while Tina really gets into the holiday spirit.

Stuff like this shouldn't be funny, but under the right circumstances like here, murder can be funny. Wheatley has great fun with the story, which was written by stars Low and Oram after exchanging holiday stories.

There are some laugh out loud moments throughout here, and it also has time to take in a lot of local sights too.