Review

Review Date: 6-March-11
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

When I watch a Matt Damon movie a good part of my attention is focused on what a damned fine actor he is. Even in bad or mediocre films (The Brothers Grimm, The Good Shepherd, The Informant!) he appears in perfect control of his craft and his character. While I admire and enjoy this talent, one of the surprising pleasures of his latest picture, The Adjustment Bureau, is how little it made me notice his performance. Damon is as solid as ever, and his character, a New York politician named David Norris, is compelling. But the movie offers such a fast-paced, meaty story that it kept me absorbed in other ways.

Like many another mind-trippy film, The Adjustment Bureau is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. Like all good science fiction, it makes age-old ideas feel fresh. The movie opens with David losing his first run for the U.S. Senate and simultaneously meeting the woman of his dreams (Emily Blunt). They share a love-at-first-sight moment in a men's bathroom and separate without arranging to meet again. A few months later they run into each other on a city bus. He gets her name (Elise) and phone number, and then his life turns upside-down. He is waylaid by a team of conservatively dressed bureaucrats who work for "the Chairman" (a title accompanied by an upward gesture) and are responsible for keeping the Chairman's plan working smoothly. This plan encompasses every human on Earth, and the suits use supernatural powers to ensure that each one does exactly what he or she is meant to do (by "adjusting" their experiences and choices). According to the plan, David is not meant to be with Elise. Therefore, he must give her up or suffer dire consequences.

Even a popular politician wouldn't seem to have much chance against the agents of God (or a god, anyway), but David has two things in his corner. One he recognizes: free will. The other he doesn't discover until the end: a member of the adjustment squad (Anthony Mackie) who feels an unusual degree of compassion for the humans whose lives he manipulates. David struggles with his fate over several years, once spending a magical night with Elise (cementing their gut feeling that they're meant for each other) so that one of the Chairman's heavy hitters (Terence Stamp) has to threaten him again. Both David's and Elise's careers flourish during this time (she's a dancer, the right-brain complement to David's left-brain sensibility), which raises the question of whether worldly success is a sufficient alternative to love.

The movie's answer to this question is No, and the chemistry between Damon and Blunt helps make this obvious. The final scene is a thrilling twist on the romantic movie standard of the protagonist running through city streets to prevent the loss of his beloved. As any fan of sci-fi knows, free will packs a lot of power if people wield it well. When the people are lovers, willing to sacrifice all to be together, their power — like their story — is hard to resist.

Copyright © 2011 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.