Late Night Shopping (2001)

Director:

Saul Metzstein

Writer:

Jack Lothian (writer)

Release Date:

22 June 2001 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Let's not go to work

Plot:

Four young friends have tedious nightjobs and meet every night after work in a cafe. Sean hasn't met his girlfriend in three weeks...

Plot Keywords:

Cafe | Friend | Beach | Time Clock | Shopping

Awards:

7 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Luke de Woolfson	...	Sean
James Lance	...	Vincent
Kate Ashfield	...	Jody
Enzo Cilenti	...	Lenny
Heike Makatsch	...	Madeline Zozzocolovich
Shauna Macdonald	...	Gail (as Shauna MacDonald)
Sienna Guillory	...	Susie
Laurie Ventry	...	Joe
Bobby Finn	...	David, Coma Boy
Claire Harman	...	Wendy, Pizza Girl
Nigel Buckland	...	Alec, Duty Manager
Lesley Harcourt	...	Girl in Bed
Garry Sweeney	...	Hospital Porter
Carmen Pierquaccini	...	Girl in Service Station (as Carmen Pieraccini)
John Wark	...	Shelf stacker

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

UK | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | Norway:11 | Spain:T | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK

Company:

FilmFour

Trivia:

The tunnel at the end of the film is the Clyde Tunnel. It passes under the River Clyde, the major river running through Glasgow.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Jody "convinces" Sean to go see his girlfriend, we see that his outfit changes. When he is in the café, he is wearing a dark, wool sweater. Immediately after this, we see Sean at the train station wearing a gray shirt and gray track jacket.

Quotes:

Sean: It's a girl's thing.
Jody: A girl's thing?
Sean: Yeah.
Lenny: Yeah.

Soundtrack:

(I Just) Died In Your Arms

Best Brit film in years!

My faith is slowly but surely being restored in the British film industry. It would seem that the steady tirade of shoddy Lock, Stock & Bridget Jones rip-off's is being offset by some nice low budget character driven pieces that are begging to be seen by a larger audience.

Late Night Shopping is one such film. Yet to secure a release in the US, this is definitely a film to keep an eye out for.

Saul Metzstein's debut feature is a glorious exploration of friendship and how we choose to spend our lives. The four main characters all work nightshifts and spend the time before and after work drinking coffee and talking about how they hate their jobs and lives in general.

Lenny works in a directory enquiries call centre and has trouble speaking to women. Sean is a hospital porter who's girlfriend works a day shift, consequently he never sees her and wonders if she still stays with him. Vincent works in a supermarket and is a self-confessed womaniser who has a three strike rule. He will only sleep with a woman three times before he dumps them. Jody works for a computer components company and constantly feels left out by the three boys.

The four talk and go about their dull, mundane existence. The film however is anything but mundane. The tight script from Jack Lothian sparkles with wit and charm and you grow attached to the characters and genuinely feel for them. The story doesn't fall into cheap clichés and keeps the viewer on it's toes, not rushing into any obvious or cheesy climaxes.

In a welcome change of pace for recent British movie the film contains no violence and no drug-use. Sex is hinted at rather than shown and swearing is kept to a minimum.

The movie was filmed in Glasgow and director Saul Metzstein does a bang up job off making the grey, gloomy city that I know look like a bustling, lively metropolis. In-fact If I didn't know it was filmed in Glasgow I would have a hard job recognising it, although I did spot a few places that I know.

I'm not familiar with any of the actors from the film, but I was very impressed with the performances that they give. They really made me feel for them and I saw I bit of myself in each one (being a twentysomething loser in a dead-end job myself).

Late Night Shopping is easily one of the best films to come out of Britain in a long time and demands to be seen by as many people as possible.

4/5