A || The Adjustment Bureau || Review

Review by Jason Venter
March 15, 2011
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If you hear about “The Adjustment Bureau” and the premise doesn’t make sense to you, forgive it that flaw. All that you really need to know is that it is based on a book written by Philip K. Dick. Then everything suddenly makes sense and the notion of fate and magic doorways and such is as natural as a spring rain or morning breath.

Dick’s work has been used before to produce some interesting films (notably classics such as “Blade Runner” and Spielberg’s less classic “Minority Report”), and the magic works again here if you’re just willing to suspend your disbelief. Specifically, you have to be ready to abide the notion that there is a “behind the scenes” to our lives, that special beings of unknown origin are controlling our fate and can see our future and force us to march to the beat of a drum we’re unaware is even beating.

Matt Damon’s character, David Norris, has no idea that there’s a Matrix of sorts that drives his recent political success. He likes to believe that he got to where he is thanks to careful choices. As the movie begins, Norris is running what is destined to be an unsuccessful race for the New York senate. His victory is all but assured when a smear campaign suddenly leaves him in a posh men’s restroom, composing a concession speech and wondering what might have been different if a simple prank didn’t get in the way of his need for the public’s adoration. His preparations are overheard by a woman he has never met, the beautiful Elise (Emily Blunt). She’s elsewhere in the movie called a loose cannon. The description fits. Elise is, after all, a dancer who is only even in the building because she was crashing a wedding and entered the restroom for shelter after fleeing from security. David has no reason to take anything she says to heart, yet there it is: a connection he can’t ignore. Inspired, he makes the concession speech to end all concession speeches. In defeat, he does more to advance his career than he ever had up to that point.

Defeated though he may be, David Norris is likeable enough that you feel he should have won. Elise is likeable. The people who an accident allows David to stumble across, who eventually work to thwart the possibility of his relationship with Elise… they’re all likeable. That’s the movie’s apparent flaw. Damon plays his role with passion and charm beyond anything that most will recall ever seeing from him. Blunt is beautiful and nearly impossible to resist. The streets of New York are similarly enthralling. Even the dingiest tunnels—a brief stop between magical doors that teleport the user across the city—are charming nearly to a fault. The world can be a cruel and horrible place, but it doesn’t feel that way even when David Norris is living with the fear that he’ll say too much and someone will lobotomize his brain.

The reason everything works despite the lustrous sheen is that even though it was originally written by a master science fiction novelist known for his concepts, the story ultimately told in “The Adjustment Bureau” is not actually about brain lobotomies, or doors that open and let a traveler step across town in mere seconds. The real heart of the tale is the connection shared between David and Elise. Theirs is the story that matters. Theirs is the story of infatuation that drives them to each other in the face of a million choices that they both know make more sense.

“The Adjustment Bureau” occasionally feels too bright and cheerful for its portrayal of one man’s despair, but that’s because the film ultimately aspires to tell a tale of the triumph of the human race. Don’t go to see the movie because you want a heart-stopping thriller. See it because, after all, it’s a choice that makes sense.

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