The Adjustment Bureau
Every once in a while, a movie comes along that is completely sabotaged by its marketing campaign. Look at the trailers for “The Adjustment Bureau,” for example. Is it just me, or does this movie look like just another thriller in the vein of “Paycheck” or “The Box,” where people are trying to uncover the truth of the world around them and the consequences of doing so?
Do me a favor: Ignore those trailers and TV ads (in retrospect, the poster is perfect however). They aren’t doing the film itself justice. Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick (whose writings have inspired not just the aforementioned “Paycheck” but also “Minority Report,” “Total Recall,” and “Blade Runner”), “The Adjustment Bureau” plays more like an old-school romantic thriller along the lines of “Charade” and “North By Northwest.” As adapted and directed by “Bourne Ultimatum” screenwriter George Nolfi, you can just picture Cary Grant (the star of both of those classics) right at home in the role of David Norris (Matt Damon), a youngish Congressman who has just lost his Senate bid when he meets Elise (Emily Blunt) in a hotel bathroom. Long story. They have an instant rapport, but they are quickly separated, and it appears they may never see each other again. By chance, they meet on a bus a month later, although by this point we’ve already noticed some mystery men keeping tabs on David. They are to keep him on a certain “path” by making sure things happen a certain way.
That’s all I’ll say for now, but the trailers have already revealed more than that. The main thing to know is that Nolfi has turned Dick’s intriguing central concept into a thriller the Master of Cinematic Suspense would be proud of, as David is chased and threatened by individuals in suits and hats who aren’t big on the explaining, even though David’s desire to find Elise forces their hand. While on the surface, the film derives its tension from the age-old concept of free will and predestination (Do we have a choice in life, or is there a bigger plan?), buried just beneath is a contemporary look at political campaigning. After all, isn’t it people behind the scenes who are making sure politicians like Norris make the right decisions while seeking office? Can you really tell me a writer as talented as Dick had just sci-fi philosophy on the brain when he wrote this story?
At the heart of the film, however, is the aborted romance between David and Elise. Immediately these two share a deeper connection that cannot be “planned.” Or can it? Originally chalked up to chance by the men in suits, we will later learn there might be more to their bond than that. Whether it was once true or not that David and Elise were meant to be together is irrelevant; the point is that they think so and that their being together is now a threat to the larger plans set out for both of them, resulting in chases and scenes of character-driven tension that would make Hitchcock smile. I know I smiled when all was said and done, whether it was from the effortless chemistry between Damon and Blunt, the inventiveness of the story as it unfolds, the romantic drive of Thomas Newman’s score, or from just the fact that for the first time in a good long while, Hollywood has delivered the sort of classically-produced entertainment they were so good at for so long.
