Writer-director Sean Ellis snagged an Oscar nomination for the original time-obsessed short in 2004.

So you could be forgiven for thinking the film-maker is still playing with the nature of chronology by extending it by 84 minutes to feature length.

The trouble is it's not really time well spent.

Quidditch captain Sean Biggerstaff makes the leap from Hogwarts to the aisles of the Whitechapel branch of Sainsbury's as art student Ben.

Emerging from a bruising break-up, he discovers he's suffering from acute insomnia so seeks to make a bit of money by working the night shift at the local supermarket.

It's here that he imagines he has the ability to freeze time for everyone around him while he wanders unobserved in their midst.

What's slightly creepy is that Ben chooses to hitch up the blouses and pull down the skirts of women shoppers captured in suspended animation. And sketch their naked bodies.

Actually, it's not slightly creepy at all...it's deserving of a double page-spread in the Sex Offenders Register.

Anyway, the clock-stopping voyeur also catches the eye of winsome checkout girl Sharon (Fox). In her case, he's fortunately only spotted her "inner beauty" and her clothes stay on.

However, he also realises that she holds the keys to his heart...as well as his sleep patterns.

There are a lot of intriguing ideas here but they're couched in reams of hippy-drippy philosophising and sixth-form meditations on the meaning of love and life.

"The bad news is that time flies," Ben ponders. "The good news is that you're the pilot." Well, yes.

The acting is perfectly decent - particularly the quietly impressive Fox - and once you've banished thoughts that Biggerstaff was once Ant (or is it Dec?) then his performance proves gently engaging.

The trouble is that it's just too cute and the denouement clunks into place as predictably as the most ideas-challenged rom-com.

Cashback sir? No thanks.

Tim Evans