Cashback

British feature-film tyro Sean Ellis has taken his 18-minute original, made in 2003 and nominated for a 2006 Live Action Short Film Academy Award, and expanded it into an ambitious and daring feature whose slight premise can’t sustain it, but which doesn’t fall in on itself either. It’s told to a great extent as narration over moving tableaux–sort of like those old Prince Valiant comic strips.
Goodwin stands out as a comic presence, particularly during a soccer match that’s an absolute paragon of self-delusion and inverted sports clichés, and Ellis conjures an image at the end that’s as beautiful as any you’ve seen on film. Ben may well be an artist, though at this point he was stopping time both on the screen and in the audience.
Ben and Sharon spend a lot of time talking, and Ben in his voiceover spends a lot of time talking about them talking, and that’s a breakthrough right there, because so many teen romances in the movies operate on the premise of love at first sight and do not realize that while you should like someone in order to make out with them, getting beyond second base requires actual dialogue.
The movie is lightweight, as it should be. It doesn’t get all supercharged. Ben and Sharon, despite setbacks, are delighted to be admired by such wonderful partners, and we are happy for them. And that’s about it. Even though this movie stops time, it did not require a science adviser.