Lost In The Matrix Of Love

Rating: 6/10 (3 April 2011)

"The Adjustment Bureau" theorizes that the Earth is being controlled by a race of superhuman middle-aged men in magic fedoras. This premise could be absurd or frightening, but the movie plays without a trace of whimsy or horror. Instead, "The Adjustment Bureau" is like "City of Angels" and "Ghost Town," a romantic fantasy about benign supernatural forces interacting with humans in New York (I'll let someone else make the facile pop-psychology analysis). The cosmology of the film is explained in a couple of quick expository scenes, and therefore not that interesting, and the special effects are pretty mundane -- the producers seem to have budgeted more for high-profile cameos (John Stewart keeps showing up, and Michael Bloomberg drops in for a montage) than CGI. And the acting is competent but for the most part unspectacular. Still, "The Adjustment Bureau" has its charms.
Matt Damon plays a young New York congressman with no apparent party affiliation who discovers the Adjustment Bureau, an omnipotent but generally benevolent supernatural bureaucracy which guides human affairs -- kind of like a less malevolent CIA or more intrusive Google. How does Matt respond to this staggering metaphysical revelation? By obsessing over the fact that he's being kept from the girl of his dreams. And in fairness, that girl is pretty damn adorable -- Emily Blunt, as a charmingly impudent ballet dancer with a knock for short skirts and sharp quips. The hyper-romanticism of the plot makes it difficult to take "The Adjustment Bureau" all that seriously, and the epic scenes of men in suits and hats running through downtown Manhattan get a little boring after awhile. But Damon makes for a watchable if slightly inert man on a mission, like a less annoying Tom Cruise or slightly more animated Harrison Ford, and Blunt is outstanding as the unattainable object of desire. A bit more Blunt and "The Adjustment Bureau" could have been mesmerizing, but as is it's an okay movie that's worth adding to your Netflix queue if you like romance.