An interesting love story with the unnecessary distraction of unrealistic plot elements

Rating: 5/10 (27 April 2012)

I saw the trailer for this movie and was interested to understand how a plot as implausible as a global, all knowing, and eternal adjustment bureau could possibly be rendered in a believable manner. Further to that, the mechanics of the bureau are played out via a love story, taking place between Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, that threatens to derail the bureau's predestined plan.
In watching the movie, I honestly battled with the believability of the plot line and found that rather than adding to the overall script, it detracted from it due to its sheer lack of plausibility, which for me at times bordered on the ridiculous.
It is not the first time an all knowing agency has been used as a plot element on the big screen, other notables include Dark City, and the Matrix, however, what those movies are able to do is to create a whole world independent in its laws and physics wherein the characters are developed in such a way as to be believable within those confines.
I must admit that the only reason I watched the entire movie was because of the chemistry between Damon and Blunt's characters, and the hope in the back of my mind that the director would eventually succeed in making me understand and believe the bureau's role in the overall plot. Alas, while for some parts of the movie I was able to suspend my belief, ultimately the film did not do enough to convince me.
In the end, it felt like the writer was looking to make a love story which asked pertinent questions regarding the balance between life, love, and career but couldn't think of a clever way to do that so they just threw in the adjustment bureau bit.
I feel like The Adjustment Bureau would have been a better love story had they only focused on the the relationship between Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. The addition of the extra plot elements sadly detracted from the overall experience.