Cashback
Directed by Sean Ellis.
The premise for this movie is simple: Ben Willis (Sean Biggerstaff), a visual arts student, is dumped by his girlfriend Suzy, and afterwards has trouble sleeping. So to accommodate for his insomnia he gets a job at a supermarket working the night shift. To pass the time there, he alternates between mentally freezing time to examine the women up-close with their tops off (in the spirit of art, of course), and explaining to us what his co-workers are like. We are given a voiceover narration of everything Ben is observing or thinking, in the style of Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, even when the subject at hand is blimmin' obvious. The key to Ben's problems is Sharon (Emilia Fox), the shy but beautiful checkout chick who releases Ben from his insomnia and is the catalyst for his success as a graphic artist.
What we have here is a glorified break-up story. Actually the movie glorifies all its subjects: sensitive young men, break-ups, the female body, even supermarkets (the aisles of the Cashback supermarket are gleaming and it seems to be where supermodels go for milk and cheese). It was initially refreshing to see characters whose lives are bound to a supermarket, but the novelty quickly fades.
Ben's break-up is presented with such an air of quiet tragedy that it made me cringe. I am not saying that romantic break-ups cannot be tragic and a serious moviemaking subject, but that this movie does not pull it off. It is difficult to take Ben's suffering seriously when so much effort has been invested in making his life after the breakup 'cool'. And the direction assumes that the voiceover is enough to make the audience interested in its characters, but the intentionally superficial characterisation is insufficient when we are also expected to sympathise with Ben.
This is one to avoid, but if you are drawn to it, you should expect lots of still nudes, other 'artistic' camera work and non-stop voiceover.
1/5 Stars
Prithvi Varatharajan
