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SYNOPSIS:
When London art student Ben Willis goes through a painful
breakup, he develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working
the late night shift at the local supermarket. There he meets
a colourful cast of characters, all of whom have their own
‘art’ in dealing with the boredom of an eight
hour shift. Ben’s art allows him to see the haunting
beauty of the everyday world and the people inside it –
especially Sharon, the quiet checkout girl, who perhaps holds
the answer to solving the problem of Ben’s insomnia.
MOVIE
REVIEW
This has
got to be every boy’s ultimate dream: Being able to
stop time. Imagine all the things you can do. Peep into people’s
darkest secrets by reading their diaries and mobile phone
messages. Understand people’s truest emotions by understanding
what goes behind their everyday facades. And for the horny
boys, undress girls and see them in their true glory. Err,
well, in the name of art, you can choose to draw their nude
portraits.
That’s
what our protagonist in this movie chooses to do.
Sean Biggerstaff
(Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) plays Ben Willis,
who falls into depression after breaking up with his girlfriend.
Time passes oh so slowly and everything around him seems to
slow down painfully. He becomes an insomniac and begins working
late night shifts at a supermarket. He discovers his talent
of stopping time and gets to admire many female customers’
bodies in their truest forms. He makes new friends and gets
a grip on himself. He begins to understand the exquisiteness
of things around him.
The 90-minute
movie directed by Sean Ellis is a full length feature of his
2004’s nominated short of the same name. It seamlessly
includes the 18-minute short film of the same title within
its running time. Told in a signature European voiceover style,
the picture is engaging and narrates itself very flowingly.
It will probably appeal to boys who have similar childhood
memories about friends, crushes and first encounters with
sex.
Biggerstaff
is likeable without being whiny, while female co-star Emilia
Fox (Keeping Mum) is a nice complement to his simple character.
His supermarket friends are played with nice comedic effect
by Stuart Goodwin, Michael Dixon and Michael Lambourne.
Other
than reliable performances, the English production also boasts
of clever writing which does not make you cringe like other
Hollywood movies out there. The portrayal of a boy’s
views of the world is artistically depicted on screen, with
a fair amount of nudity to earn it a M18 rating.
There
may be nothing too innovative or refreshing about the premise
of the story, but take a moment to look out for beautiful
time lapses, mesmerizing time freezes and other visually appealing
shots by cinematographer Angus Hudson. You almost wish that
this is your life, and everything could play out so visually
enticing like this movie – it’d be nice if you
were given the artistic liberty to undress people too.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 disc contains no special features.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
visual transfer is fine, and there are English and Spanish
Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks to choose from.
MOVIE
RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
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