Director: George Nolfi
Story: Philip K. Dick
Screenplay: George Nolfi
Producers: Bill Carraro, Michael Hackett, Chris Moore, George Nolfi
Starring: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Terence Stamp, John Slattery, Anthony Mackie, Michael Kelly
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running time:

(3.5/5)

If you’re looking for a repeat of your Inception experience, don’t get too excited. The Adjustment Bureau is a solid thinker, but far too light and breezy with a lot of hand holding to be anywhere in the vicinity of the same ballpark as Nolan’s hit of last summer. The film suffers from just a little bit too much Adam Brooks inspiration and not quite enough from The Wachowskis or the Nolans of the world.*

Matt Damon stars as an inspirational, up-and-coming politician vying for the love of his life (Emily Blunt). But a group of specialists are hell bent on making sure the two of them never meet up again as that is not a part of their “plan”. This special team, known as the adjustment bureau are able to make small changes in the world around us; shaping everyone’s lives ever so slightly and keeping destiny on the right path while causing the slightest amount of “ripple effect” as possible. Who these guys are, why they do what they do and who they answer to remains to be seen.

From the marketing campaign I’d imagine one would be quite intrigued and looking forward to a mind-f*ck thriller that will keep the audience on it’s toes at all times. But if that’s what you’re looking for, be prepared to be disappointed. The story is much more that of a romantic love story than an exciting thrill ride.

The concept of fate and destiny is an interesting one but injecting a love story into the concept rather than an intricate, high brow look at deception and how to beat destiny takes away from what could be a really neat idea. At no point during the climactic chase scene did I have any feelings of danger or excitement. There’s certainly a tinge of marvel at the live action version of the warehouse door sequence from Monsters, Inc. but just based on the whimsy screenplay and frolicsome score, it isn’t hard to tell exactly where this movie is going to end up.

The exposition runs a little bit too heavy handed as well. As was a common complaint with Inception, a little bit too much verbal explanation is spoon fed to us here. Sure we need to learn and understand the rules of this world, but the way it is handled here is clumsy and frankly a little eye-rolling. Having a ten minute exchange in which Matt Damon literally just asks questions of a rogue “agent” on how everything works and the agent simply explains everything in terms that even a 2nd grader could understand was bordering on insulting. Not to mention that there is a very convenient bit of… convenience that allows this conversation to take place in secret (when you see the movie you’ll know what I mean). I half expected Morgan Freeman to appear out of nowhere at the end of the film and explain everything we’d just seen to the audience.

This isn’t to say there aren’t a few things going on that are worth the look. The cast for one thing. Though I would’ve liked to see a little more Terence Stamp, he certainly is fun to watch (as always). Unleashing their charisma once again are character actors Anthony Mackie and John Slattery that bring a lot to their roles. But I think the one to watch here is Emily Blunt. She reminds me of a more Hollywood glitz version of Michelle Williams. Least impressive was possibly Matt Damon. While he’s still solid as always and an actor I find to be more and more versatile with each recurring role, I didn’t find him to be all that believable as a young, career-driven senator with love in his heart and his usual charisma and energy wasn’t as electric as it typically is. He just didn’t seem to be jumping in with both feet per his usual go’s as a character.

And again, it takes an idea that nearly everyone who’s ever taken a philosophy 101 course (or just laid awake at night pondering their life) has thought about before and injects real world, “Matrix-like” concepts into the mix that puts fighting fate in much more literal terms. It makes us wonder about our choices in life and do we really have free will. And if we don’t, who is pulling the strings? How do they pull those proverbial strings? Why? How do they know what is right for us and for the rest of the world? These are interesting ideas that just don’t play out all that well for a romance in which the characters can teleport to various locations through special doors. Whimsy is not what this movie should have been.

In the end it’s a good time and worth the watch for the well put together cast and interesting concepts that are drawn out in the real world which previously were only in our minds. It’s just a shame that someone thought making it a “high on the cornball scale” romance was a good idea.

  
*Adam Brooks, The Wachowskis nor Christopher Nolan had anything to do with this picture (to the best of my knowledge). Their names were used in this review simply as examples and for the sake of comparison.