| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 12/28/2012 : 11:11:39
There's a dilemma when two very funny actor/comedians write and star in a screenplay.
It's a promising premise that each is escaping from something rather than headed to somewhere. From then on, this almost-metaphorical vehicle quickly develops flat tires, overheated radiators, and empty gas tanks. It veers cross country and becomes mired on Derivative Road.
They're almost very good as a couple of recently acquainted misfits who set off in a camper van on a sightseeing tour around the heart of England. I say almost because neither convinces us of their off-screen lives, yet each is terrific at timing.
As screen-writers? Not so.
Some critics are making comparisons with Bonnie and Clyde or Badlands. Some are calling it darkly comic. A killer of a road movie. Whatever. The brilliant paradigms "borrowed" by Steve Orem and Alice Lowe all leave this little indie film eating their dust.
Even director Ben Wheatley's decision to bring in former collaborator Amy Jump - presumably hoping to recreate the success of their thriller Kill List] - can save neither Sightseers' script nor reconcile the inconsistencies of tone.
The latter is very important because right from the start we never get a point of identification we're comfy with, and that makes us either unable to believe some of the choices, or overcome indifference to the characters themselves.
It's no surprise both actors and director honed their skills on television. The characters are all surface, and the actors can't seem to dig deeper down to anything other than "ideas of behavior." So we get bits.
The film, too, plays out in little bits - structured almost like a comedy sketch show. We keep trying to get a grip on the reality of these moments - for a few of them are very good - but it's alien territory throughout.
Ironically it's set in a physically all-too-familiar landscape, so the couple's sometimes fatal irrationalities should work. They don't, though. If you speak the language of cinema, there are small hints at a resolution - which makes the ending not really the surprise it's meant to be.
All the way through I kept hoping the film's unseen title might be Insightseers, shedding some light on the irrational lives we lead down at the bottom of the heap.
But too much doesn't add up. Irrationality consistently stems from trying to do the right thing - ecologically, socio-politically, and morally. Which, boiled down, seems quite a fascist message to me.
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