Brief running time gives film no room to mature
The focal point of this 80-minute movie occurs about 19 minutes in, when a prospective parent asks: “What’s the point of taking care of a perpetual baby if it’s not going to grow into a sentient being you can interact with?” To which the reply is: “I see you have several plants, Lydia.”
That exchange needs to be explained. Infinity Baby, indie filmmaker Bob Byington’s latest dark social satire — it was filmed in bleak and white — imagines a near future in which a genetic disorder has rendered some newborns incapable of ever growing older.
Nick Offerman plays the head of the company that finds people to look after these infants, who also seldom eat, cry or poop. Martin Starr and Byington regular Kevin Corrigan are the hapless employees on the delivery side of the business. And Ben (Kieran Culkin), is the boss’s nephew, more consumed with serial dating than his job as a manager.
The two story strands — adoption and dating — dovetail somewhat messily, although one could argue that relationships and babies are just adjacent Spokey Dokeys on the great bicycle wheel of life. But the film’s brief running time also means neither plot gets the chance to fully mature.
Sure, there’s a nice bit in which Ben’s latest girlfriend finds an unexpected ally in his mom (Megan Mullally), and it’s fun to see Offerman doing his gruff, off-the-cuff, I-don’tcare routine — I swear, he’s going to wake up one day and discover he’s Bill Murray — but Infinity Baby feels a little underdone.
It’s good company while it lasts, but before you know it you’re on your own again.