An engrossing, edge-of-your-seat... love story? "The Adjustment Bureau"

Rating: 10/10 (7 July 2011)

"The Adjustment Bureau" has been advertised as a sci-fi thriller about the mysterious behind-the-scenes machinations that may or may not guide our everyday lives as part of some Divine Plan. While it is essentially a science fiction parable about fate-vs.-free will (based on the Philip K. Dick short story "Adjustment Team"), at its heart, really, "The Adjustment Bureau" is a love story, and a very gripping one, at that.
Dick (who passed away in 1982), you will remember, has had several of his works adapted posthumously into big-budget science fiction classics - the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" became "Blade Runner" (1982), the short story "We Can Remember it For You Wholesale" became "Total Recall" (1990), and the short story "The Minority Report" became "Minority Report" (2002). "The Adjustment Bureau" is the latest Dick adaptation to feature stellar performances and intelligent subtext that asks the ultimate question: Is it possible to deviate from a Divine Plan in favor of one's own personal destiny? What happens when we pit "What could be" against "What will be"?
These are just some of the big question facing David Norris (Matt Damon), an aspiring New York congressman running for the U.S. Senate. After a crushing defeat his first time running, he retreats into brief despair to practice his concession speech. Hope comes in the form of a chance meeting with the lovely, free-spirited ballerina Elise (Emily Blunt). The two thus hit it off immediately, but soon Fate - in the form of the fate-controlling Adjustment Bureau - intervenes and reveals to David that he has a big future ahead of him, a future that could include a bid for the White House. To David, that sounds great. The problem: his future doesn't include Elise in it. And the big theatrics in this film feature David using his Free Will to deviate from a Big Set Divine Plan to make his own destiny with the one great love of his life.
"The Adjustment Bureau" is the first truly great film of 2011 I've seen so far. After seven months so far of films that have continually failed to capture my interest, "The Adjustment Bureau" is finally a film that not only captured my interest, but thoroughly engrossed me in its story, characters, humor and carefully-plotted revisionist universe of a world controlled from behind-the-scenes by mysterious, dapper, fedora-wearing Men in Black Overcoats who manipulate things big and small to ensure that things stay on-track according to The Plan. And, trust me, the mysterious Adjustment Bureau pulls out all stops to ensure that the plan succeeds, and sometimes these machinations can be quite humorous. But David never ever gives up, despite the many Rube Goldberg-style stumbling blocks put forth by the Bureau to keep him on his pre-determined path in life.
Perhaps more than any other Dick adaptation in the last 30 years, "The Adjustment Bureau" has characters and situations that are easily identifiable to everyday folks like you and me. While previous films were mostly set in dystopic futures, this film is set in the present, more or less, so there's no loss of time or space. What's more, how many of us have ever wondered if the set course we're on in life is what is truly meant to be? How many of us have ever wondered if mysterious forces are working behind-the-scenes guiding our every move? Will we ever meet "The One"? (This latter question is especially relevant to everyday people, in my honest opinion.) If so, can it be God (or for you spiritualists, agnostics, and New Ageists out there, a Higher Power?)? Allah? Buddha? E.T.? "The Chairman"? Who really knows?
Matt Damon has never been better as the high-strung politician trying to outrun his destiny at every corner (many times, literally, as proved by this film's climatic ending foot-chase through the streets of New York). He takes his role seriously and is quite superb, as is his love interest played by Emily Blunt. The actress is equally important here not just because she's the love interest, but her heartbreak as the forces manipulating their lives trying to keep her and David apart really make you hope that they're able to overcome any pre-determined paths in life and wind up together. From the second they first meet, there's an instant burst of chemistry between them, which is something that is rarely achieved in movies these days. And what's even greater is that throughout the thick & thin of the plot, that chemistry remains intact and never folds.
George Nolfi wrote and directed "The Adjustment Bureau" and while I'm not sure if this is his debut film and if it is, it's an impressive debut. Nolfi definitely has a future in the thriller genre if he chooses that route; what does Fate have in store for him, I wonder? I was thoroughly on the edge of my seat the entire time throughout this picture, which ultimately seems like a cross between Dick's own "The Minority Report" and a high-concept (is there anything else?) Hitchcockian-style thriller. I think that debt is owed to Nolfi's confident writing and directing, and the sure-fire performances of the two leads.
"The Adjustment Bureau" is very easily one of this year's best and smartest films. Its being largely ignored at the box office only baffles me.
10/10