Expect Good things from this Director in the days to come!!

Rating: 7/10 (18 May 2011)

The Adjustment Bureau The Adjustment Bureau is a 2011 supernatural thriller directed by George Nolfi. It stars Matt Damon (Oceans series, Good will hunting) and Emily Blunt ( Wolfman, The devil wears Prada) Before I begin I would like to add that this was the first time I ever went for a movie without knowing what it's about or who is in it. I just bought the ticket to escape the heat and was hardly expecting anything spectacular. The fact that I was actually surprised came as quite a bonus considering how I was actually planning to sleep off the entire viewing time.
So anyways the movie started off as a typical political thriller with its intense moments indicated by the music and an entirely huge collection of men in suits, all looking grave and serious. In fact i was half expecting it to be something on the lines of Michael Clayton if only half as good. It was only after 15 minutes into the film that the scenario completely flipped . From men in suits carrying books and files to time taking a halt and notebooks with digitally moving parts to even sets changing from one location to another through weird doorways. It was then that i realised that this movie was going to be anything but boring.
The movie starring Matt Damon and Emily blunt is a romantic science fiction thriller and we all know how rare that is. It follows the life of David Norris (Matt Damon) who is running for the Senate. Due to unexpected circumstances he looses his lead in the election and is thus at a point where he has to deliver his final speech before the final results come in. Here is where he encounters a girl who in 5 minutes changes his prospective on things after which he decides to change his rehearsed speech and delivers something spectacularly honest and offbeat. Even thou he loses the current election his unorthodox move puts him as a favourite for the next elections.
All through this we witness strange men in overcoats and hats watching and monitoring his entire move. The next day he runs into her again on a bus even thou we are told that certain people were trying their level best to make sure he misses his bus. From then on it sets off a series of incidents which according to the men in hats was never supposed to happen. That is when they intervene and introduce themselves as the Adjustment Bureau. A group with extraordinary powers who follow the orders of the 'Chairman' (a synonym of angels following the orders of GOD) . They inform him that he is supposed to be very important for mankind and his further association with the girl might jeopardise the entire 'Plan' Their job was to make sure that things move according to plan. They have maps which charts out the path of every human being. They can change and arrive at any location instantly through a series of doorways. They can cause incidents on their own will and they were willing to put all their resources to use to make sure these two never meet. Bizarre as it sounded he agrees to their conditions. But a thing like love and curiosity is a lethal combination. From there on the movie turns into a roller coaster ride as we follow every step of Norris to discover how things unfold.
As a movie it surprised me to a great extent as I never actually believed that it would be this entertaining. This being the first directorial venture of George Nolfi , whose writing credits include The Bourne Ultimatum and Oceans Twelve, he did quite a fine job in doing justice to the plot which in itself could have gotten quite convoluted and confusing . Instead he introduced a certain smooth flow to the entire plot where no scene seemed unnecessary and there were hardly any blank or boring moments. One could say the concept came a little close to being like City Of Angels only with less mush and a more solid story line. The performances of both the leads as well as the side characters were believable but nothing spectacular, for after all it was more of a story driven movie rather than performance. We expect good things from this director in years to come.
Rating: 3.5/5 Vikram Agarwal for MuvieMadlyDeeply.com