Excellent, Convention-Challenging Science Fiction

Rating: 9/10 (20 March 2012)

An excellent Philip K. Dick adaptation that comes off as neither too cerebral nor too wantonly action-heavy. Matt Damon slides into the role of a brash, combustible young politician in the mold of JFK, whose chance meeting with his dream girl sets off a chain reaction that alters his perception of the world at large. Shortly afterwards he stumbles across the delegates of a shadow agency, who freeze time and bend reality to tinker with the thoughts and feelings of the population, all in the name of a precise global timeline. Damon, naturally, is immune to their tricks and bolts from the scene. As a science fiction twist on the cat and mouse game, it's a blast of fresh air with an admirable sense of restraint. In a perfect world these agents would do their jobs without being noticed at all, so their methods consist of a series of slick, downplayed visual tricks and slight tweaks to the natural order. That sensibility works for their own purposes, but also for the film's: the special effects are equally moderate, and as a result more believable. Damon and Emily Blunt click right away as a duo, so well in fact that it's no challenge at all to root for them from the get-go, and the agency itself is far from the black-and-white, good-versus-evil gang of naughty henchmen you might expect. A tense, creative adventure with perhaps a tad too much sentimentality, it's a raging, surprising, success.