‘Seekers of Infinite Love’ Review: A Road Trip Comedy That Runs on Empty
Victoria Strouse’s Seekers of Infinite Love made me realize a new pet peeve: constant screaming/crosstalk as the main drive of comedy ain’t that funny, especially when it wastes a talented cast with an unfunny script. It doesn’t help that this SXSW flick – starring Hannah Einbinder, John Reynolds, and Griffin Gluck – is about neurotic, annoying siblings going on a road trip to save their sister from an armed cult.
CREDIT: Tim Suhrstedt
MPA Rating: N/A
Runtime: 1 Hours and 31 Minutes
Language: English
Production Companies: Limelight, Temple Hill Entertainment
Distributor: : N/A
Director: Victoria Strouse
Screenwriter: Victoria Strouse
Cast: Hannah Einbinder, Justin Theroux, John Paul Reynolds, Griffin Gluck, Justine Lupe, Greg Kinnear
U.S Release Date: N/A
An NYC-based neurotic author, Kayla (Hannah Einbender), meets with her lawyer brother Zach (John Reynolds) and baby brother Wes Bachman (Griffin Gluck), a graphic novelist and gambling and pill addict. They discuss that their estranged sister Scarlett (Justine Lupe) has joined a mass suicide cult in Kentucky. Their absent parents also hired a cult deprogrammer, Rick Delacroix (Justin Theroux), to help them on their journey. They couldn’t make a flight happen, so they took a road trip to save their sister. Alas, these people can’t agree on anything, and hijinks ensue.
Charming performances can’t quite mask Seekers of Infinite Love’s underwritten characters.
The Seekers of Infinite Love cast is fine in their respective roles. The Bachman siblings are as endearing as they are neurodivergent in their own right. Einbinder’s lowly esteemed, Reynolds plays a straight-laced, nervous Nancy, and Gluck is tweaking without his drugs. As the story progresses, they end up feeling like siblings, though far from feeling like actual people.
Theroux is a standout as his gruff, albeit completely incompetent, Rick is the picture of loserdom. It’s amusing to see him gradually go from cool to pathetic throughout, like watching a MacGyver to a MacGruber in real time. It also made me think, “Wait, comedic Justin Theroux has the same inflections as Will Forte, just in a lower octave.”
Whatever inkling of sibling chemistry they share onscreen is bogged down by Strouse deploying all the trappings of an R-rated road trip comedy, but in a humdrum, familiar, Little Miss Sunshine approach that doesn’t work for either the stars or the comedic set pieces. The plot sees the Bachmans cause mishaps at various locations, from a “fat camp” to an auto shop, due to Rick’s false leads on the cult’s secretive whereabouts. Of course, they cause chaotic shenanigans that escalate. Across these locations, their drive, and moments at various motels, the siblings constantly bicker, with the film hoping some of their offhanded stingers towards each other get you to laugh. It’s the film’s main comedic driving force, and it’s largely unfunny.
Seekers of Infinite Love's unfunny and grating writing make the comedy hit only roadblocks.
While Seekers of Infinite Love has sporadic laughs and solid gags, like Wes fainting every time a gun is shot, the endless arguments between the Bachmans and the people they come across become grating fairly fast. It made me feel like Saoirse Ronan at the top of Lady Bird with the way I wanted to roll out of their car every time they argued.
These sequences could’ve been funnier if the writing was stronger and the Bachmans were likable. But Strouse, going for the dry route on top of coverage and close-up reaction shots for dialogue exchange, clips the comedic wings as well.
Einbinder and Reynolds are above material like this, as this sitcom plot arrives 10 (if not 15) years too late. Well, I do find it funny, as it’s a 2014 script that was in The Black List, brought to life 12 years later.
Final Statement
Try as its talented cast might, Victoria Strouse’s Seekers of Infinite Love is a unfunny and frustrating trip not worth taking.
