Solid Action/Romance with a Few Forgivable Flaws

Rating: 8/10 (12 March 2011)

I must admit – I was a little intimidated with the prospect of seeing director/screenwriter George Nolfi's 'The Adjustment Bureau'. Fresh off the heels of my 'Inception' experience a few weeks ago, I was fairly well convinced I would leave the theater a quivering pile of confused brain mass, too ashamed to reach out for answers. But 'The Adjustment Bureau' did not go the way of 'Inception' in that its sole purpose was apparently not to play kickball with the viewers' sense of reality and leave you so befuddled you'd be questioning your ability to make rational judgments for weeks to come. No, 'The Adjustment Bureau' (A/B) was a kinder, gentler foray into the genre of reality-bending thrillers. Truthfully, to call The 'A/B' a thriller would be about as accurate as calling 'It's a Wonderful Life' a Christmas film. It will undoubtedly be categorized that way, mostly for the sake of categorization, but at its heart, it's an unapologetic romance. Matt Damon (David Norris) and Emily Blunt (Elise Sellas) star as two hapless souls who may or may not be destined for one another – if they could only have a moment's solitude to figure that out. They're besieged by a mysterious group of men in hats who call themselves The Adjustment Bureau, and they've been charged with keeping David and Elise apart for reasons of which they themselves aren't really sure. Loosely explained, The Adjustment Bureau functions as a kind of metaphysical CIA – they exist to ensure that the actions of human beings go according to plan. The way it's explained is that human beings have free will about the inconsequential things, but for matters of great import, well, those decisions are much too weighty to be left up to chance. When Norris reminds one of the Bureau members that the world is plenty screwed up even with their intervention, he quickly retorts, "If we left it up to you, there would be no earth at all." So David and Elise spend the entirety of the film attempting to shirk the influence of Fate Personified. These men in menacing dark suits and ubiquitous fedoras possess limited abilities to control the physical world, and are able to intuit the next logical action their subjects will take without having the ability to read minds. They are all in possession of little black books that chart out their subjects' life maps in real-time. Which is why it's confounding that in the first 15 minutes of the film, Matt Damon's character, innocently enough, manages to give them the slip, and stumbles upon some secret information about their organization that puts both he and Blunt's characters in peril. Suffice to say, The A/B needs better security. With so many resources, and help from 'on high', how, oh how could they be so easily foiled by someone who's not even attempting to acquire behind the scenes knowledge of their organization? I couldn't help but think that mistakes like that must happen all the time in a secret organization where employees haven't quite figured out how to lock doors. For reasons that were never explained, The A/B only seems to be concerned with the activities of those residing in New York City. Apparently, there are very few fate-altering decisions that are made outside of Manhattan proper. Go figure. There also seems to be a lack of enforcement of the Celestial Equal Opportunity Employment Act (assuming such an act exists), being that there are apparently no women who can be entrusted with guiding the decisions of mankind (or womankind, if you will). Nevertheless, The A/B has a lot going for it. For starters, its star, Matt Damon has enough charisma to carry the film from start to finish. He and Blunt work well on screen together, although I never felt truly invested in their romance. The A/B seems to suffer from the same ailment that plagues so many psychological dramas – how do you keep your audience informed about the premise of the film, while still leaving room for the human elements that cause the viewer to make an emotional investment? I'm not sure that The A/B has quite solved that conundrum. I found myself rooting for the Damon/Blunt characters, only because I knew I was supposed to – not necessarily because I 'believed' in them as a couple. Likewise, there were times where I felt as though the premise was being hastily explained to leave room for plenty of drama/romance/action. As Oprah likes to say, "You can have it all, but you can't have it all at the same time." That fact becomes quite evident when a film like The A/B tries to cram so much 'film' into one film. Thankfully, screenwriter Nolfi didn't resort to 'mile-a-minute' dialogue to cover more ground than he was capable of covering in the film's 1 hr, 39 min. runtime. What we're treated to is a genuinely earnest film that encourages the viewer to believe that in the end, love really does conquer all. David and Elise are repeatedly ripped apart by Fate, only to continue making an effort to find one another again. I have to admit that this sort of film is right up my alley. Scripts that play around with concepts of reality/fate/truth/the afterlife/time travel in an intelligent way tend to speak to me without having to say very much. As long as I'm not able to drive a Delorian through the potholes, I'm golden. If you're a fan of films such as Men in Black, Sliding Doors, Serendipity and even Monsters, Inc. and Wizard of Oz, you're likely to find yourself in welcome territory. Sure, the film veers off into some corny/preachy moments towards the end, but overall, I was captivated, interested and entertained. What more can you ask from a drama/action/thriller/suspense/romance film?
Rating: 8/10 *