A Match Made - and Interrupted - in Heaven

Rating: 5/10 (22 March 2011)

I know how revered Phillip K. Dick is among the sci-fi community, so I'll not offend, other than to say I wasn't taken in. Based on his short story, 'The Adjustment Team', this film follows other film adaptations of his books, notably 'Blade Runner' and 'Minority Report'.
Prior to going on stage, David Norris (Matt Damon) encounters Elise (Emily Blunt) in the gents. She's an unauthorised guest at his campaign rally (he's running for Senate) and is hiding there. The pair hit it off immediately. Minus a parting kiss, their interaction is non-physical, but deliciously seductive. Beguiled by Elise's sweet- nothings, Norris ignores his carefully rehearsed, meticulously researched speech and speaks from the heart. And it's a cinematic sucker-punch.
Thing is, they weren't supposed to meet. That's where the sci-fi kicks in. The Adjustment Bureau are God's angels, although they are coy about saying so. They busy themselves ensuring that every person's plan – that's their life plan – goes according to plan. They intervene whenever it seems someone is going off plan by making 'adjustments'.
For servants of the Messiah, the Bureau's powers are dubiously limited and conditional. They're a bunch of Inspector Clouseaus. They don't even have good dialogue ('It doesn't matter how you feel', one Bureau member says to Norris, 'What matters is what's in black and white'). Good Lord!
AB members live 'a little longer than humans', can't exact too many adjustments, can't exact any adjustments near water and can't even answer Norris when he asks (many times to allow them to confer and get back to him) why they are so interested in his plan. When AB head Terrence Stamp finally answers, we're so unconcerned that we want there to be an adjustment to end the film.
Beneath all the bull, like the ramblings on free will, there's tenderness. Damon never stops searching for Elise, never stops overcoming the hurdles the Bureau put in front of him. He's like Indiana Jones whizzing around New York via special doors, accessible by wearing a Bureau fedora. Damon's chemistry with Blunt recalls the chemistry he had with Vera Farminga in 'The Departed', but with a higher bonding of electrons and neutrons.
If 'The Adjustment Bureau' is sure it's a sci-fi film, it should be taken with salt. Watch it as a rom-com instead - that's where the real fantasy lies.
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