Movie Review: Cashback

Are you looking for a great romantic movie that you can get even the most anti-romantic guy (like my husband) to watch? I highly recommend renting Sean Ellis' Cashback (the 2006 full-length film, not the 2004 short). This funny and yet somehow very serious British fantasy/comedy/romance is cleverly disguised with a racy cover photo that will interest the least mushy of men.

Meet Ben (Sean Biggerstaff), an art student with a passion for drawing and a sober and loving appreciation for the female form. After an intense breakup with his long-time girlfriend, Ben falls in with a serious case of insomnia. He finds himself unable to sleep, not just for days, but for weeks. The torment of having an extra eight hours in each day in which to think about his lost sweetheart drives him to take on a late night shift at a local grocery store, just for something to do.

While working the late late shift, Ben develops his own artistic ability: the ability to stop time and live between the seconds of others' lives. How does he use this ability you may ask? The same way most (straight) men might think to do so - by undressing the frozen women around him. Ben never gives viewers the impression of a voyeur or peeping tom, however. He holds women in high regard as an artist and shows his utmost respect for them, carefully pulling their shirts up and their panties down, meticulously drawing them in beautiful artistic poses, then carefully redressing them before starting the world once again.

During his time working at the grocery store, Ben begins to fall in love with the beautiful cashier (Emilia Fox). Unable to bring himself to undress her, he spends hours drawing sketches of her between the moments of time he has paused. Their romance is portrayed as beautifully innocent as well as hopeful, she falling in love with him for his ability to see beauty in all things, and he falling madly in love with her for the beauty he finds while sketching her between moments.