Love Means never having to say you’re adjusted

Stirring up a Melting Pot of Genres in Twilight Zone Fashion
by
Morgan P Salvo


The Adjustment Bureau is a sci-fi action thriller, love story and parable all rolled into one and though not my favorite movie by any means, writer/director George Nolfi combines all the elements with equal parts to tell a somewhat balanced story.
Based on Phillip K Dick’s short story “Adjustment Team” originally published in 1954, about an insurance salesman who learns that he's a puppet on a string controlled by a clandestine organization. Writer/director George Nolfi (penned The Bourne Ultimatum) has made considerable…ahem… adjustments to the story, though it looks like the business suits (especially the hats) have remained in the same era. This time around the central character is politician David Norris (Matt Damon) whose aspirations are shattered mysteriously at the last moment. The plot takes a while to settle in as it has many facets to set up: the political goings-on of Norris, the out-of-nowhere love interest Elise (Emily Blunt) and finally the mysterious figure heads in the Adjustment Bureau. We meet Harry (Hurt Locker’s Anthony Mackie) and then Richards (Mad Men’s John Slattery) as the somewhat reluctant agents of the Adjustment Bureau. It doesn’t take long to figure out that these guys are angels come down from their “boss” The Chairman (God) to ensure certain people’s destinies do not waver from the path by making tiny “adjustments”. In other words, don’t mess with the future.
That’s where the love interest between David and Elise comes into play—will their immediate smitten love for each stand the test of time? Elise and David are never supposed to meet again, but they do, and that's when things get complicated
Relying on a mandatory Hollywood make-out montage, some unnecessary past-revealing monologues and a minimum of goopy sappy dialogue, this flick is brought to life by Damon and Blunt’s onscreen chemistry. Their first connection is unbelievably charming and that’s how their chemistry plays put the entire movie. They seem to have a natural rapport fitting them to a tee and the core of Adjustment Bureau is based on their undying love for each other. Yes, this is definitely cornball country.

Nolfi has a deft hand in setting up intrigue and romance keeping the film balanced between sincerity and self-conscious amusement. Right when it feels like an all too normal love story it gets all Twilight-Zoney. There’s also an element of dark comedy bordering on slapstick when the semi-oblivious angels show their vague importance by having special powers and their ineptitude when they cannot. Rain and water shield humans from the Bureau’s visibility. And they are left in the dark by The Chairman who doesn’t fill them in on everything. “Chairman always has a plan. We only see part of it”.

So it’s not hard to fool the clueless angels. And they have to wear a fedora (no explanation here, they just do) as they race through the city via doors or portals to different locations faster than a speeding subway. When the Bureau seems to be at a stand till they call in the super angel Thompson (Terence Stamp) to play hardball. Stamp’s monologue about why the angels must intercede in the people on earth’s existence is a silly history lesson about how mankind cannot do well on its own reminding us of the Black Plague World War I & II. This might make sense in written short story form but as a scolding monologue it falls flatBut with all of the plot’s gaping loopholes one must concede that there’s no dramatic conflict unless things go wrong. The Bureau is responsible for a few comic misguided blunders as they try to thwart true love.

Considering his political leanings, it’s funny seeing Matt Damon as an everyman politician running for the senate seat in New York, yet he comes off believable. A hilarious scene is seeing him in character being taunted by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. Blunt is compellingly cool as a strong-yet-leery woman with a great sense of humor. Mackie shows heartfelt vulnerability while Slattery keeps all his smarmy douche bag tendencies intact. Stamp’s supreme command of the screen (as always) conveys stoic sternness as the perfect ultimate foil for these lovebirds’ plight thumbing their collective nose at destiny.
Adjustment Bureau touches on the theme that one can obtain their dreams and become successful if guilt tripped into it and toys with theories of free will overriding destiny.
Bureau will probably please a lot of people but for its breakneck pace I found it a bit too conventional. I was hoping the ending would go another direction. This film is actually a valiant effort to stay fresh and interesting but ultimately a love story. Bureau doesn’t need much help, just a little adjusting to.

The Adjustment Bureau
Starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Terence Stamp, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery
Directed by George Nolfi
Rated PG-13
2 ½ stars