Synopsis
Matt Damon plays a charismatic politician, David Norris, who has a chance encounter with Emily Blunt’s contemporary dancer Elise, in a men’s room while rehearsing a concession speech. As the pair realise their connection, mysterious, sinister men appear and conspire to keep them apart. The mysterious men are agents of ‘The Adjustment Bureau’, who tell David ‘The Plan’ is to keep he and Elise apart for them both to reach their potential. They must accept their predetermined fate or risk everything to be together.
The Adjustment Bureau is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, who wrote the short stories that Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report were based on, so the films metaphysical themes are no surprise. What is a surprise is the posters description of the film as ‘Inception meets Bourne’. It’s not. It doesn’t have the intricate narrative or stunning special effects of Inception or the gripping urgency of the Bourne films. What it does have is a nice, believable chemistry between the two leads in what is in essence a star-crossed love story. At the heart of the story is the concept of free will versus Fate; whether humans exercise choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or if there is a (divine) plan for each and every one of us written by the ‘Chairman’. That the ‘Chairman’ is a thinly veiled reference to God and the ‘Agents’ angels, is obvious, and although Director George Nolfi asserts he didn’t intend to make a religious film, he actually did; at one point in the film one of the agents of the bureau is actually asked outright if he’s an angel.
It’s a nice concept for a film to explore but it’s nothing new. The concepts of free will versus fate have been explored in a number of films; Serendipity, Donnie Darko and Terminator spring to mind to name just a few. But in the end it is a charming, entertaining, enjoyable love story that should have wide appeal because it also has science fiction themes and a bit of paranoid conspiracy theory thrown in for good measure.
