filmbore pick of the week - Sightseers

Sightseers

Director: Ben Wheatley

Screenplay: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Amy Jump

Starring: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Eileen Davies, Richard Glover

Year: 2012

Language: English

UK rental release: March 2013

IMDb

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Rotten Tomatoes

Were returning to the awards based features this week, and will do with a few more week's to come. And with the most recent event being the 2013 Empire Movie Awards, I thought I'd cherry pick one from the successes of the night to talk about. One fits my, as always, fussy criteria - the piece which won Best British Film, Sightseers.

Tina (Alice Lowe, of Garth Merenghi's TV series fame) is 34 and lonely. She lives at home with her smothering mother, Carol (Eileen Davies) -  an isolated life. She hasn't travelled much and would like some adventure.

She's finally found her match in Chris (Steve Oram, It's All Gone Pete Tong) who has a love for caravans, nature reserves and museums. He's a nice chap on the whole, but feels disrespected by everyone he meets and angry of other people's lack of consideration to nature and the countryside he loves so dearly. Together, they're a sweet couple, who seem to have found each other through the realms of their unique, quirky little world. Carol doesn't trust Chris though, and on the knowledge that they're about to go on holiday together she's worried for her daughter being away with him. Does she see something we don't or does she covet Alice far too much?

Said trip is a tour around several locations around Yorkshire, taking in museums and camping spots along the way, with their first stop being the Crich Tramway Museum. On a tour around the site on a rare tram, a fellow passenger causes an upset by dropping rubbish on the vehicle's floor. This starts to put Chris on edge, showing a more perturbed side that Alice may not have noticed before; a stressful inner soul clawing its way out.

Ruining their experience of the museum, this leads to Chris reversing over the litterbug with a gruesome outcome. Alice runs round to see and is shocked by the terror before her, unable to tear her eyes away from the dying man. Chris, on the other hand, feigns surprise but seems faintly pleased.

This first "accidental" death opens Alice's world to one of exciting dark adventures. As she slowly works out what Chris is up to she slowly steps into his warped view, a new life to step into to escape from her current imprisoned existence. However, the more Tina understands Chris' bleak, esoteric underside, with a desire to be there with him, the more they begin to drift apart.

For those that have followed filmbore thus far may be aware of my love for Ben Wheatley's work from when I previously reviewed Down Terrace and Kill List. Of the two, it does feel a little closer to his debut Down Terrace, especially through it's altogether improvised feel, with natural conversations playing their own part in the established script. Yet, it's clear that this is his most sincere and upfront black comedy yet, especially when exposing some of the brutality in such a nonchalant manner.

There are such striking differences between the horror and the normality too, which is key to making a dark comedy work. And in those heavier moments, Wheatley still hides some of the gruesomeness by putting it out of shot, as he has before, allowing our mind to conjure up the horror behind the curtain. Except, this time around he's unafraid to pop in a few blatant reveals of the aftermaths to add further shock. Somehow though, these methods make for more rambunctious laughs, where Wheatley's usual relaxed attitude to violence in his films is used in great effect as a tool for comic timing. Sightseers is gory as hell in these brief slap-in-the-face moments, and is quite happy to carry the humour with it. 

It's important to recognise that there is more depth to the comedy than bloodied slapstick. There's great dry humour, especially between the leading pair. The laughs grow as the film goes on, with the characters slowly embedding themselves into the story, and once Tina starts to understand and buy in to Chris' violent actions it allows for some hilarious domestic arguments during the craziest situations.

This makes it an original spin on a caravan holiday. The best comparison I can muster is that it's like Mike Leigh's Nuts In May cross bred with Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. I know...it sounds ridiculous, but it will make sense once you see it. Even though there is a vibe of the familiar, there's no disputing it's originality. This feel is generated by Wheatley's deft hand, but can only be brought to fruition by the tale that binds this all together. The story, created by our stars Alice Lowe and Steve Oram, came from an idea grown between our two stars many years ago combining their experiences on caravanning holidays. The treatment was turned down frequently due to it's dark veins, but Edgar Wright came to the rescue (who Lowe worked with on Hot Fuzz and is an Exec Producer on this feature), injecting some life into the arteries of Sightseers, finally drifting into Ben Wheatley's hands and heart. With Amy Jump, Wheatley's regular collaborator, as a third scribe, the script could be finally be fleshed out. With some great written pieces, with some wonderful one-liners thrown in ('Are you saying "Murder Is Green"?!'), together they've manage to tie this all up in a wonderful tale.

The story takes us to some interesting sites too. The tale's premise means we get the opportunity to see parts of the British countryside that we rarely do in cinema. We're treated to some great shots of the Yorkshire countryside, highlighting its vibrant beauty in the earlier, happier times of the picture, while exposing its eerie mysticality as the movie progresses. 

It's fair to say that Wheatley's films have a very specific look to them. Take the moment where Chris is disgruntledly stalking across the hills after a camper walking his dog: with handheld moving shots and great use of natural light to create long crisp lens flares and moody silhouetting, it's a template that you can clearly identify him by. Tied into some of Ben's trademark handheld close-up shots, and visually it really stands up over more recent outputs.

It helps that those he's getting close to are so absorbing. As is usual in a Wheatley picture, there are strong characters throughout the piece, even down to the smaller roles. The cast is very small, but every persona is embodied perfectly by each actor playing them. They don't detract from the presence of the main characters either, instead emphasising their richness. Tina is immediately likeable. Her idiosyncrasy is endearing, and you feel a little pity for her when you begin to get to know her. But as her identity flourishes you're drawn to her peculiarities.

Chris' character is the most intriguing of all. He craves esteem from his peers, even strangers, and feels cheated somehow. And his care for the countryside, along with his hatred for others who don't feel the same, mirrors his own preservations and lack of self worth. He clearly feels misunderstood but instead of seeking the means to express himself, he takes out his desires through bizarre acts on innocent people, then finding some justification for his outbursts. It's an astonishing combination of attributes, building a man who you feel, no matter how much you peel away, you'll never reach his core.

This comes across so well thanks to Steve Oram, who is great in the role of Chris. Seemingly sweet until the foreboding takes over, embodying the frustration through bludgeoning, then dropping it all to whinge about the smaller things in life, apathetic to recent events - it's a very well balanced, subtle performance, that he handles delicately and wisely. And in tandem with Oram, Alice Lowe as Tina is delightful...incredible in fact. It's about time she had a shot on the big screen. This situation feels similar to when Wheatley gave Neil Maskell an opportunity in Kill List. She holds the heart and soul of the entire film, and we experience Sightseers with her. She is a unique character, who follows her own own confused, blind path but you still assimilate with her. It sounds bizarre when considering what happens, but you'll see what I mean when you reflect on the film. This is only possible thanks to such an assured execution from Lowe, and her turn in the limelight is a welcomed one.

Typically British and deserving of the acclaim it starting to amass. I wasn't sure how Wheatley could have continued after his fantastic debut, Down Terrace and against the mighty Kill List, but with Sightseers he's knocked it out of the caravan park!

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