What is the theme of Cash Back?

Question

Today I watched Cashback. But I am in doubt whether I understood its theme properly or not. At the end, it is a love story. But somethings I could not connect to the plot. Like his power to pause time (God was it real?), his adolescense et al. We saw one person in the hotel could move in his paused world. What does it signify? Why was his adolescenes shown? The film could only show his breakup with Suzy and how he fell in love with Sharon. Why was his time-pausing ability and his adloescenese was shown?

If I get these answers, I am sure I would be able to understand the theme.

Answer 1

Personally, I agree with this particular review of the movie, (as far as the plot is concerned) in Seattle Times, where the reviewer says this:

"Cashback" is a surprisingly charming hybrid of romantic comedy and "artsy" male fantasy.

The time-pausing ability of Ben is a fantasy of his, which he thinks about as a way to pass his night shift. He talks about, how time manipulation is an art, and how Sharon believes in not checking the time, to actually pass time. He stretches this fantasy of his, to connect it with his fascination and inspiration from female form as an arts student.

Ben tells about a Swedish foreign student, living with his family, when he was 6, whom he sees naked. At this point, Ben says that he was exposed to fascination and beauty of nakedness and he wanted to freeze the world so that he can live for a week in it. He still thinks that, that was the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. He fantasizes naked females in his frozen world, due to this.