Great acting and lovely romantic chemistry, but the story and screenplay brings it down.

Rating: 6/10 (9 March 2011)

The Adjustment Bureau has received mixed reviews on here so far and I am not surprised. The trailer has been marketed deceptively to the audience of an science fiction, action thriller and it only has one of the three. The thing is I knew specifically what the film was as one of my friends who saw it told me, a romantic drama. My rating for this film wasn't as high as I wanted to be as for a while I was internally struggling whether to award this a six or seven out of ten, but I decided on a six in the end.
The plot consists of young man David Norris (Matt Damon) who is running for senate in New York. He ends up meeting a beautiful ballerina Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt) in the men's bathroom whilst practising a speech. They hit it off immediately and meet again on the bus, but a mysterious group of men dressed in hats are tailing him and he eventually finds out that they are part of a mysterious bureau that control the choices that humans make due to the past historical atrocities. One man called Thompson (Terence Stamp) tells him. The bureau helps certain people get to the "top" to help keep the world in order. They try to keep David and Elise apart as David is destined to become down the road the president of America and him being with her would ruin that.
But he refuses to heed them and threatens to expose their existence so they do everything they can to stop him, which includes using some sort of magic with their hats, which enable them to walk through doors that lead to different locations. David with help from one of the bureau Harry Mitchell (Anthony Mackie) helps him get Elise back and outrun the rest of the bureau.
The main reason to see this movie and what keep it afloat is the great acting from the two main characters. Matt Damon gives a surprisingly touching performance of a man torn between his career and love for Elise. He is even convincing as a man running for the senate. Emily Blunt is even better with a terrific performance and has a wonderful charming charisma that won me over. The chemistry between her and Damon is superb and convincing and you do feel as though they love each other. They are a charming couple, which make them likable and you want them to be together. The supporting performance from Terence Stamp and Anthony Mackie are good and lend decent support to the main cast. The script has it moments of sparky wit particularly in the first couple of scenes between Blunt and Damon and the cinematography of the scenery is mesmerising.
The story is also interesting to an extent of choices, fate and love, but it dosen't go far enough in depth and just brush strokes over it and there some plot holes and unanswered questions like how was the bureau created and when? And the ending was rather silly. As Harry explains to them, they are allowed to stay together because the chairperson changed the plan, but why didn't they just change it to that in the first place? Why put everyone through that? Harry mentions it might be a test and that the chairperson was won over by their determination to be together, but it is too vague and apparently the chairperson can take any form. How? Of another person? Animal? If they can take the form of any person, did their decision to change the plan alter because of the "person" they took have different opinions on things? It's never explained and as a result the screenplay just feels empty with huge voids that should have been filled.
It's a good film and I recommend seeing it, but it isn't all it's cracked up to be with even the action it had being of little excitement. Damon and Blunt's acting and their romantic chemistry though carry this film afloat, but it was disappointing as it did have the potential to be much more than it delivered. All the same I enjoyed it from beginning to end and if you want a nice romance film then this is for you.