Sightseers is a black comedy that starts out in the common rhythms of middle-class life and quickly turns into something quite different. As the titular travellers, Alice Lowe and Steve Oram (who also wrote the screenplay) play a couple who discover that a holiday is more fun with a little spontaneous and unjustified homicide. That makes it sound like a shock film, but Sightseers invests a lot of thought and development into the troubled psyches of Tina and Chris.
This is not exactly Silence of the Lambs. While Chris and Tina are arguably serial killers, what's most notable is their total inability to grasp the morality of what they're doing, easily inserting killing into their routines and bickering. While Chris and Tina's murderous behaviour stems from their frustration at life, it also reflects the banal sociopathy of the tourist mindset. In their complete commitment to a momentary idyllic experience at the cost of anything else, Tina and Chris could be any boorish vacationer.
Alice Lowe is the real revelation here, effortlessly embodying her character's cracked mannerisms to managing to make even the most mundane statements into laugh limes. This is the rare comedy in which, instead of going over the top, the actors underplay their characters to great effect. The same can't be said of Ben Wheatley's direction, which is mostly competent but too heavy on the comedic slow-mo. It should be noted that the film lags in parts, but ultimately it's a brisk 90 minutes. Really it's just a treat to see how committed the actors are to their characters, and to taking their ridiculous premise seriously.
This is not exactly Silence of the Lambs. While Chris and Tina are arguably serial killers, what's most notable is their total inability to grasp the morality of what they're doing, easily inserting killing into their routines and bickering. While Chris and Tina's murderous behaviour stems from their frustration at life, it also reflects the banal sociopathy of the tourist mindset. In their complete commitment to a momentary idyllic experience at the cost of anything else, Tina and Chris could be any boorish vacationer.
Alice Lowe is the real revelation here, effortlessly embodying her character's cracked mannerisms to managing to make even the most mundane statements into laugh limes. This is the rare comedy in which, instead of going over the top, the actors underplay their characters to great effect. The same can't be said of Ben Wheatley's direction, which is mostly competent but too heavy on the comedic slow-mo. It should be noted that the film lags in parts, but ultimately it's a brisk 90 minutes. Really it's just a treat to see how committed the actors are to their characters, and to taking their ridiculous premise seriously.