COMEDY; 1hr 28min
STARRING: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram
Roads scholars: Oran and Lowe
As a card-carrying member of the unlucky tribe, 34-year-old dog walker Tina (Lowe) is grateful to have met a bloke (Oram as Chris) and to therefore be freed from the poisonous control of her rancorous mother (Eileen Davies), if only for a week. Being the methodical sort, Chris has planned a caravan road trip of England’s north, whose highlights include tramway and pencil museums. By all appearances, these two are drably forgettable, their idea of high excitement to pop an extra strong mint. (“Mint me!”) But Chris is in no way the pushover people mistake him for, and Tina has her own, ahem, issues.
For a film this flat-out wacko to work, the performances must be scaled to fit. Comedians Lowe and Oram and director Ben Wheatley (Kill List ) have ordinary sewn up: Tina and Chris may be on a spree, but they couldn’t be more naff about it with their stuffy Volvo and their frumpish outfits. It’s a lunatic contrast that pays with plenty of get-up-and-go as the notorious banality of evil propels itself over the top.
