The Infinite Man is an Australian science fiction film that looks like it cost about the same amount of money that I spent buying my car. And my car was cheap. It’s the story of an awkward guy named Dean who takes his girlfriend on a disastrous anniversary weekend away.

This guy is a genius who plans everything out in advance, but still nevertheless, manages to find himself in the middle of the desert at a derelict motel that looks more like an old mental hospital than a romantic getaway. You’re just going to have to buy this for the movie to work. The weekend goes so badly that he invents a time machine to transport himself back and fix his mistakes. And then things, not surprisingly, get really really complicated. We see the same events play out over and over as the film slowly reveals more and more future versions of the characters were present and playing roles in the events that unfold.

This script is some kind of miracle. It’s a ridiculously complicated little thing that almost dares the audience to find problems with its logic. I was struggling to keep up, as the movie I thought I was watching changed and morphed. You would need to watch it 50 times with several spreadsheets and calculators to really test it properly. When I have seen this sort of thing attempted its usually in heavy movies like Looper and Primer, but The Infinite Man is short and light and frothy. It’s a brilliant piece of work by Hugh Sullivan who makes his debut here as writer-director after making a few short films.

Clearly I have no problem with Hugh Sullivan the writer, but Hugh Sullivan the director has some room for improvement. There is only one setting and three cast members, so clearly this is a super low budget movie. That said, there should have been some attempt to make it more visually interesting than it is. It’s all set in this old motel, the cast hardly change clothes and the camera work is basic.

This might sound weird, but I honestly got sick of looking at it. At least Alex Dimitriades shows up as a massive dickhead to liven things up a little bit.

Still, I would have loved to see what a more visual director could have done with this script. I think it could have been a classic. As it stands, this is still a really good little movie that is well worth a look.

Read more Big Screen reviews from Sam Clark

Get ‘Big Screen’ Podcasts