Different, but oddly lightweight

Rating: 5/10 (16 October 2013)

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU is a modern-day sci-fi thriller based on a short story by one of Hollywood's favoured genre writers, Philip K. Dick. It shows plenty of potential and promise in a plot that's novel and fresh-feeling, but come the end you get the impression it's entirely lightweight and curiously insubstantial.
Writer/director George Nolfi crafts a story with undertones of the excellent DARK CITY in look and style as aspiring politician Matt Damon discovers mysterious forces governing his world. Unfortunately, despite the hugely extensive back story behind this fare, what it boils down to is a simple will they/won't they love story between Damon and the alluring Emily Blunt.
This development makes the repeated attempts at danger and suspense feel faintly ridiculous. I mean, would all the antagonistic characters - John Slattery, Terence Stamp, et al - really go to this level of trouble for something so, well, unimportant in the scheme of things? When the stakes are so low, the viewer just doesn't care.
There are good things in this: a solid turn (again) from Damon as a likable everyman hero for a change, well-handled direction and a lovely turn from the absolutely ravishing Blunt, but the attempts to meld old-fashioned thriller aspects with the romantic storyline just doesn't sit very well with me.