The Adjustment Bureau

The trailers for this one started showing up at about the same time as Unknown’s. Both intrigued me, but The Adjustment Bureau seemed a quite a bit more promising; instead of just the possibility of something sci-fi, it was much more obviously intentional. I only recently found out it’s based on a story by Philip K. Dick, author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which became Blade Runner, so it’s got some credentials too. Of course I haven’t read any Dick books so I can’t speak for the faithfulness of the adaptation (as usual). However, I can say that I enjoyed this about as much as I thought I would.

The story follows Matt Damon’s character, a young politician aspiring for a Senate seat, whose typical semi-frat-boy past is catching up with him and making his life difficult. A seemingly chance meeting with a pretty girl (Emily Blunt) inspires him to give a speech that brings him back into the political picture. Up until this point, everything is going just as intended. Then chance intervenes and the two meet again. This is not supposed to happen. The Adjustment Bureau, a sort of supernatural agency for the correction of free will, doesn’t have this event in its plan.

It’s at this point that I started getting worried that the movie would fall into the trap of insta-relationships that I touched on in my post about Unknown. Thankfully though we’re given a nice explanation as to why the two bond so quickly that fits into the conceit, and makes the story more interesting. It seems the plan hasn’t always been the same; it has been adjusted itself in the past. Their relationship had been predetermined before, and some guidance given to their lives before had leaked into the new plan. I’m cool with that.

With that out of the way, the movie becomes a sort of chase film a-la Dark City with teleporting doorways and telekinesis, surrounding a charming romance with a little bit of comedy. It’s the kind of movie I’d take a girl to see if I knew any. The sci-fi might be a bit flimsy but I think it works well enough. It was nice seeing John Slattery from Mad Men, and Damon was just as good as usual. Emily Blunt did a great job and her dancing scenes were actually enjoyable, perhaps more so for me than most of the stuff in Black Swan. I liked it.