Art student Ben (Sean Biggerstaff) breaks up with his longtime girlfriend, Suzy (Michelle Ryan). It is very ugly; items are thrown. In the wake of this breakup, Ben finds he can't sleep. After a week of insomnia, he gets a job at a local 24-hour grocery store, where he works the nightshift. He offers them his bonus 8 hours and in return gets cash back. Then follows a series of vignettes that detail his oddball co-workers. Stuart Goodwin is the standout as Mr. Jenkins, the manager. Sean finds that time has slowed to a crawl and decides that the best way to handle it is to stop time altogether. Sure enough, time stops and he breaks out his sketchbook to draw the various young ladies shopping in the store. Of course, he has to pull down their pants and hike up their shirts for a proper nude model. Also, there are the frequent flashbacks to his youth where he encountered naked women and pornographic magazines. Eventually, thoughts of Suzy fade and he begins to crush on Sharon the cashier.
Initially, it had seemed that the time stopping scenes were all in his imagination. Eventually, that is demonstrated otherwise. He goes from having a vivid imagination to being a sex offender with a superpower. Biggerstaff is convincing as an insomniac, looking half asleep throughout the movie. He emotes with a blank look on his face and his narration is a dull monotone. Thanks to his time stop nudes, there is a lot of nudity in the movie, almost all of it gratuitous. All of the comedy is thanks to his co-workers or his randy friend, Sean.
Some of the cinematography is well done. The scene where he sort of slides back from a pay phone and lands in his bed was cool.
Overall, not worth watching. Skip.
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