|
| Movie Name: |
Cashback |
| Grade: |
A- |
| Date Posted: |
7/30/07 |
|
|
“Picture Perfect”
Famed photographer Sean Ellis expands his Oscar-nominated short “Cashback” into a delightfully quirky full length feature. Cult members of the American comedy “Office Space” will appreciate this British attack on workplace boredom and insomnia.
Ben Willis (Sean Biggerstaff, “Harry Potter series”) loses his girlfriend Michelle Ryan (the new “Bionic Woman”) and suffers from sleep deprivation due to a broken heart. He watches and watches the clock in his college dorm till it becomes evident sleep will never return. Since he spends the night hours wide awake anyway, he decides he might as well get paid, so he joins an all-night supermarket.
The fellow employees all have methods to survive the hours that drag by. Pretty checker Sharon (Emilia Fox, “The Pianist”) avoids the clock. Boisterous Barry (Michael Dixon, UK’s “Coronation Street”) performs death-defying stunts. Ben blends in with the crowd, and finds his own magical way to pass the time. He freezes it.
Ben’s ability to stop time can be read as a metaphor, an imagined skill, or audiences can suspend disbelief and accept that the world stands still at his urging. What makes Ellis’ film so crafty is how it takes fantasy elements for granted. It’s unquestioned how Ben paralyses the entire universe on whims, nor are the ramifications to the rest of the world important. This is Ben’s world and the story only cares about him.
Even more fascinating is how Ellis takes Ben’s hobby (he strips beautiful women at the market and with his artistic dexterity, sketches them in his book) and strips away any the actions’ perversity. Ben’s should appear as a sleazy adolescent, but there’s an innocence in his behavior. He doesn’t lasciviously leer at his subjects but draws them as the specimens of beauty they truly are. This film in lesser hands would titillate like “Porkys” or the telekinesis teen sex comedy “Zapped,” instead it’s an earnest romance.
Ellis requires a pure, respectful youth to make this delicate situation work. Who better than a member of Harry Potter’s club? Biggerstaff is the perfect man-child for the job. While his friend Sean (Sean Evans, “Being Julia”) accosts every girl in town, almost always ending with a smack or a drink in his face, Ben has a boy-next-door quality. Quiet, charming and with a clear eye for beauty, he wins the audience’s hearts.
As the spell-breaker of Ben’s doldrums, Fox is truly a female creature of beauty. Recognizing in Ben affection and artistry, she clings to the magic he dispels in his drawings.
A talented photographer, Ellis frames his tale with gorgeous but simple women, settings that evoke enchantment (like the frozen snow storm that ends the film), and reminds us that camaraderie can enliven even those most depressing work environments.
The British comedy Cashback” welcomes Sean Ellis to the feature-length romantic-comedy genre with open arms. A contemporary of Mike Newell (“Four Weddings And A Funeral”) and Roger Michell (“Notting Hill”), he brightens up a rather dour period in film history. Grade: A-
|
|
|
| Click here for Website, Photo's and More Information |
| Posted by: bouynxdor |
|
|
|
|
|
