Infinite Keeps Spinning in Never Ending Loops

Have you ever been in the middle of a conversation, attending an event or completing a task when you are overwhelmed with a feeling that you have been in that exact moment, at that exact time and place, doing the exact same thing or having an identical conversation?  Happens to me all the time.  I hear songs on the radio and sing along with them like it’s  part of my mental songbook.  One hitch.  I literally would have never heard that song before that moment in time.

For Evan McCauley (Mark Wahlberg), he experiences and remembers skills never acquired and memories of places never visited on a daily basis haunting his current existence.   So, what does he do?  Of course, he self-medicates taking him to the brink of a total mental breakdown.  It’s during this mentally exhausing chapter that  Evan is sought by  “infinites,” who enlighten and reveal that these “memories,” may in fact be real happenings from multiple past lives. With critical secrets buried in his past, McCauley works with them to unlock answers in a race against time to save humanity from one of their own (Chiwetel Ejiofor), seeking to cease all life viewing it as a cursed, endless cycle of reincarnation.  Being a practioner of Buddhist faith, the nod or two in that direction coupled wiht Wahlberg’s precision stunt work literally gives Tom Cruise a run for his money.

Starting out with a high energy car chase driving backwards through tunnels, I thought this is gonna be kinda cool. sci-fi, mind bending, make you think twice sort of ride.   Unfortuantely, the film never really lives up to those initial heart-stopping minutes. As a HUGE fan of director Antoine Fuqua, Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor, I would be less than honest if I said I was hoping for just a tad bit more substance from this Todd Stein and Ian Shorr penned story based on The Reincarnationist Papers by D. Eric Maikranz.   Yet, Chris Seager’s production design captured beautifully thoough the lens of cinematographer Mauro Fiore draws you in, captures your attention and holds it for the 106. minute journey.  However, the premise of analyzing a world full of annalists and believers eerily mirrors  what is globally permeating on a level I never thought would be witnessed in my lifetime, especially as it pertains to the world of politics.

Having said all of that if you are fan of Wahlberg, Ejiofor and Fuqua, Infinite won’t sway you to the dark side, but it may make you ponder that life for a second or two. Stream it on Paramount Plus and hit me up in the comments with your thoughts.