Recovering from a devastating romantic breakup is difficult for anyone who’s unlucky enough to have love and lose it, and that’s certainly the case with dreamy, artistically inclined Ben (Sean Biggerstaff) in Sean Ellis’ romantic comedy
Cashback. Charming, offbeat enough to garner attention but familiar enough to inspire easy identification,
Cashback will likely be a great date movie, that is, if no one in the party has a problem with copious views of female anatomy.
Poor Ben is so torn up by the ending of his romance that he can’t sleep, so he decides to take a job in an all-night supermarket while he continues his art studies during the day. In the supermarket is the expected assorted collection of kooky employees: the blowhard boss who likes to think of himself as Russell Crowe (Stuart Goodwin), the practical jokers who find dildo-shaped shampoo bottles hilarious fun to play pranks with (Michael Dixon, Michael Lambourne), kung-fu king Brian (Marc Pickering), and the lithe and lovely Sharon (Emilia Fox) who may just be the answer to Ben’s insomnia.
Because Ben is a talented artist, director-writer Sean Ellis has him often see the world in terms of still life pictures, ones that he’s able to wander through and examine in detail. His fascination (bordering on obsession but with good reason as he’s an artist) with the female form allows the director to focus his camera on some astounding examples of feminine beauty in their native state, all done tastefully and well but definitely in some number. And Ellis goes one step farther by fashioning a succession of camera tricks to give the film a very individual look and feel, mirroring Ben’s fantasia that he can slow down or speed up time at will. Some of these impressive shots have been borrowed from other great films (a reverse dolly shot of Ben landing in bed comes straight out of Joel Coen’s
Blood Simple, for example) and some are simple cases of slow motion photography or double printing. Still, it’s the overall impression that counts, and Ellis’ work is both imaginative and involving. In particular, the montage sequence of a hapless soccer game with a rival team is timed superbly and is reliably funny.
Sean Biggerstaff will be a familiar face for those who saw the first two
Harry Potter films where he played Quidditch captain Oliver Wood, but he’s shed his Scottish brogue for this film, and he’s quite winning. Emilia Fox’s delicate beauty and sweetness suggest the young Blythe Danner, and some drawings of her which we see late in the film are startlingly beautiful. The silly hijinks of Michaels Dixon and Lambourne are often predictable, yet they’re used sparingly enough not to wear out their welcome. Ditto lunkhead boss Stuart Goodwin who pays for a stripper for his own birthday party.
Cashback takes familiar romantic comedy material and puts a fresh-enough spin on it to warrant attention from those in the mood for something light and rather lovely.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
