'The Infinite Man:' Romance, with a time-travel do-over

'Insanity," Albert Einstein famously said, is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

By that definition, Dean (Josh McConville), the hapless hero of Australian time-travel romcom The Infinite Man, is bonkers, loco, loopy, barking mad.

A brilliant, if absurdly obsessive scientist, Dean finds his noodle overheating when he falls head-over-heels for the girl of his dreams, Lana (Hannah Marshall).

So he spends virtually every waking moment - and one imagines plenty of dream time - deploying his massive intellect to come up with ways to ensure Lana loves him back.

Terrified their relationship may erode with time, Dean becomes convinced the only way their romance will last is for the couple to relive forever one perfect weekend they spent a year earlier at a cute rundown motel in the middle of the desert. To mark their anniversary, he persuades Lana to wear the same clothes and drive back there.

Trouble is, the motel has closed down. All that's left are empty, dusty rooms filled with cobwebs, bugs, and trash.

So opens writer-director Hugh Sullivan's feature debut, The Infinite Man, a wildly inventive, hilarious, thoughtful, and touching movie about love lost and love regained.

Undaunted by the changes wrought by the intervening months, Dean trots out a minutely detailed breakdown of everything he and Lana did on that magical getaway, and insists they reenact it minute by minute.

Lana is not happy.

Things go from bad to worse when her ex-boyfriend, Terry (Alex Dimitriades), an unhinged former Olympic javelin thrower, shows up - javelin in hand - and demands she return to him.

"You once said Terry is more athletic in bed," a sheepish Dean tells Lana in one of the film's many droll exchanges.

"He just has different influences," Lana says. "Terry's approach to sex is very Old Testament. You know, sword and sandal, blood and guts."

An alarmed Terry asks her to enumerate his love-making influences. "Dialectical theater. German philosophy. The metronome," Lana says. "Pythagoras."

Then she leaves with her muscleman.

What's a desperate Pythagorean to do?

Dean constructs a time machine.

And exactly one year later, he invites Lana to meet him at the motel. But Dean's invention takes them back to the events of the previous year, to witness their previous selves on that disastrous last weekend.

So, now we have two nervous Deans and two unhappy Lanas running around the fleabag hotel. Madcap fun ensues when Dean 2.0 accidentally pairs up with Lana 1.0 and vice versa.

The Infinite Man is a joyful, gently satirical look at our obsession with finding the perfect partner, our inability to admit we can't control the world, and our fear of change.

Great fun will be had by audiences, past and future.

Directed by Hugh Sullivan. With Josh McConville, Hannah Marshall, Alex Dimitriades. Distributed by Invincible Pictures.

Running time: 1 hour, 25 mins.

Parent's guide: No MPAA rating (profanity, sexuality).

Playing at: PFS Theater at the Roxy.

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