A thriller with no 'baddies'

Rating: 8/10 (29 December 2011)

The blurb on the DVD cover describes this as 'Bourne meets Inception', so as I enjoyed those films I was keen to see this. While there are similarities I must say I thought this was much lighter fare; that's not to say I didn't enjoy it though. At first it looked as this would be a political thriller; with candidate for the US Senate David Norris faces a surprise defeat. As he tries to compose his thoughts in the gents he is interrupted by a mysterious woman, before he gets chance to learn who she is he has to go. He doesn't expect to see her again but some time later he bumps into her on a New York bus, this time he gets her name (Elise) and number. He doesn't get chance to call her though as things suddenly get very strange for him; he gets to work and finds everybody frozen and strange men capture him and explain that it is their job to make sure that everything that is meant to happen does happen and he was not meant to meet Elise! They take her number but he is determined to find her and one day three years later he does, their problems are only just beginning however as The Adjustment Bureau haven't given up their plans to keep them apart.
I really enjoyed this; Matt Damon but in a fine performance as David Norris and Emily Blunt was suitably beguiling as Elise. Other notable performances include Anthony Mackie as the Bureau man responsible for Norris and Terrance Stamp for played one of his superiors. There was enough excitement without having the action swamp the plot and character development. It also made a nice change for there to be no real bad guys in a film like this The Bureau may have been against the protagonist's plans but their motivation was never sinister. I also liked that no attempt was made to explain how things worked; we were told the Bureau men's hats enabled then to use doors to travel across the city but no time was wasted giving reasons; it just had to be accepted. Over all it was a lot of fun; I'd certainly recommend it.