Sightseers

 We've seen love stories before, enough that (for most films) the whole narrative can be predicted from the off, the cheesy, the 'kookie' and the childish it's justified to say that the rom/com genre has been near enough murdered. One thing we haven't seen however is a love story between two equally insane 'serial killers' like in Ben Wheatleys much anticipated film Sightseers, and judging by his previous film Kill List, despite it's comedy properties Sightseers is likely to be pretty dark.

 Chris a seemingly proud and proper English gent offers to show his girlfriend, Tina, his world of 'caravan luxury' however as events soon conspire against them, the trip takes an unexpected turn. Imagine it as an ' uncomfortably dark rom-com road trip'. Unlike Wheatleys previous work which proved to be barely watchable at times, Sightseers displays a much lighter tone that will most likely appeal to a much larger demographic of people. A frequent issue when dealing with such a contrast in dark subject matter is finding that perfect balance between humorous and uncomfortable, Sightseers manages to find that perfect balance, creating for bizarre contrasting scenes of absolute hilarity and horrific violence. At times the film leans towards an uncomfortable dark narrative, momentarily forgetting about it's comedy roots and producing some uneven tones. This is largely when the bulk of the underlying themes are becoming prominent, however this did happen a little too often.

 Unlike this films American counterpart 'God bless america' which deals with similar contemporary themes, Sightseers manages to handle it's narrative with care, never forgetting it's true meaning with the characters performing the murderous acts with legitimate justification. This provides for some truly hilarious death scenes, which are usually followed by an apt one-liner giving the film a necessary playful personality. This personality is mainly injected by the uncomfortably excellent acting performances of the two lead roles, Steve Oram and Alice Lowe who provide a totally convincing depiction of two abnormal pissed off psychopaths. Every action they perform is utterly unpredictable displaying just why they are such a couple to be feared, the totally normal yet contrasting psychopathic tendencies that the couple posses prove to be oddly relatable as most of their frustrations are shared with the audience. This could easily be 'that odd couple you meet on holiday'.

 Sightseers does an excellent job of mocking English traditions with a perhaps unintentional patriotic view of Britain and In a year of completely underwhelming comedies certainly proves that you don't have to be big to be the best. Tending to the needs of it's comedic half and it's contrasting dark undertones, Sightseers manages it's narrative with direct precision from start to end supplying for a much more heart-felt finished product than expected .This is the best British comedy in years and by a mile the funniest, most gruesome, most romantic comedy of the year!

9/10- Traditional psychopaths in the English countryside, whats not to love!

Calum Russell