An impressive debut feature by any measure, Hugh Sullivan’s sci-fi rom-comThe Infinite Manis a convoluted mind-teaser of a movie, and as with many films of its ilk, whether or not it deserves the multiple viewings it arguably requires will depend on one’s emotional engagement.
Set largely around an abandoned Australian outback desert motel, it tells the story of Dean (Josh McConville), a neurotic inventor who uses a time machine so that he and his girlfriend Lana (Hannah Marshall) can travel back to a moment in their relationship when he had an opportunity to change its course for the better.
Revisiting this moment – occurring one year earlier at the same hotel – involves sending Dean and Lana back in time as observing and intervening duplicates, then triplicates, and continuing insofar as they still feel the urge to make amends. This is further complicated by the fact these different iterations of themselves develop feelings for each other; much like Shane Carruth’s cult favorite time-travel filmPrimer,it’s a film that would benefit from a helpful infographic to chart its different timelines and multiplied characters.
The Infinite Man is closer in tone toEternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind– not the first, but certainly the most well-loved film to use sci-fi concepts to explore romantic follies and delusions – thanPrimer, but unlike the former, the relationship at the film’s center requires a lot of projection and inference for Dean’s experiment (and Lana’s repeated participation in it) to seem plausible, and at 85 minutes it remains less a fully realised work than a filmed idea, with its characters registering as moderately quirky, subservient chess pieces rather than human beings.
Nevertheless, as with most concept-driven sci-fi, missed opportunities still contain myriad possibilities, and Sullivan’s film remains provocative and heady to sit back and groove on intellectually, in addition to being very funny at times. Despite the logical gaps and lack of an emotional core, it remains successful as a model of resourceful, idea-driven low-budget filmmaking.
3/5 stars
