The Adjustment Bureau

Matt Damon is back on our screens again in genre-busting thriller ‘The Adjustment Bureau’, which is based on a Philip K. Dick short story. Dick also gave us ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’, which was adapted into ‘Blade Runner’.

The Adjustment Bureau is not your average Hollywood blockbuster thriller, dealing with issues of spirituality, religion, politics, and, in particular, examining the age-old debate of whether everything is fated to happen or whether we have the power to affect our own destinies.

At the heart of the story is ‘The Architect’ (God, or someone like that), who has a grand plan for everyone and everything, and when those naughty little people step out of line and try to ruin his plans, The Adjustment Bureau is there to put everyone back in line.

Damon plays David Norris, a politician intent on making it to the US Senate. However, he inadvertently strays from the chosen path and learns of the bureau. He can never speak its name (a bit like Fight Club) and he can never see the woman of his dreams again, Elise (Emily Blunt).

The relationship between Damon’s character and that of Blunt is critical to the story, a relationship against all odds, and it is to their credit that the two leads pull it off in the main. There were several funny parts in amongst the action (some romantic ‘comedies’ would do well to take note) and their dialogue is believable. Also turning in a fine performance is Anthony Mackie, who plays a bureau agent struggling with his own emotions.

You have to suspend your disbelief a little, such as with the use of time travel (no real spoilers), but other than that, The Adjustment Bureau is more than capable of being one of the big movie hits of 2011.