INFINITY CHAMBER

INFINITY CHAMBER

It's about time this thoughtful sci-fi thriller finally got released. I screened Travis Milloy's futuristic feature (under it's other title "Somnio") early 2016 and watched while crap like "Brothers Grimsby", "Is That a Gun in your Pocket", "Cabin Fever" and "Shut In" got big-screen releases... and this languished.

After the success of "Her" and "Ex-Machina" and the recent flurry of films about wrongly convicted people, you would think distributors would flock to release a film that smartly weaves together the various aspects of our automated society while making a valid social commentary. But no...it languished. Such is the industry.

Milloy cast Relatively unknown actor Chris Soren Kelly as Frank. Frank awakens in a spartan dark room in an unspecified location. All he remembers is walking into a coffee shop before lights-out.

He is awakened by a disembodied voice that calls itself Howard - it is represented by a giant eye-in-the-sky type roving camera. Howard explains to Frank that it is there to make sure Frank is comfortable much like the relationship between Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) and Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) in "Her". But the underlying thing that Howard must do is try to get Frank to confess his involvement in the government resistance group. It is why Frank was imprisoned.

During the course of his informal interrogations Frank has flashback memories of a girl named Gabby (Cassandra Clark) in the coffee shop whom he can somehow contact in a past/present time hop. Their relationship is a nod to the relationship between Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Christina (Vera Farmiga) in "Source Code" with a strange psuedo-out-of-body context.

What we derive from these flashbacks and interrogations is there is a social revolt against the US Government led by a guy named Fletcher May (Cajardo Lindsey) who is also imprisoned. The question is: How far has the revolt gone and is there anything left outside?

Howard's primary objective is to relax and confuse Frank to the point that the lines are blurred between what is real and what is fantasy. Once again, we get a computer in control and manipulating the humans, just like Hal did in "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Her", "Ex-Machina", and extending as far back as the 1960's TV show The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan. In fact, any one who remembers that breakthrough show will truly enjoy "Infinity Chamber".

Soren Kelly supplies an extraordinary performance as the tortured soul who must try to outwit the computerized jailer. Clark is only adequate as the coffee shop girl with Lindsey giving a well-timed crazed cameo.

"Infinity Chamber" is a thinking man's sci-fi thriller that takes the best elements of "Her", "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Fortress", adding a dose of romance and blends it into a delightful drama. -- GEOFF BURTON

GEOFF BURTON

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