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Review: The Adjustment Bureau

 

It was perhaps inevitable that The Adjustment Bureau would end up being compared, by some reviewers, to last year’s Inception. Both films are big-budget thrillers with elements of the supernatural, starring rugged men with tragic pasts who willingly struggle against impossible odds for the sake of their children/the woman they met in the public loo (delete where appropriate). It doesn’t help that The Adjustment Bureau is also based on a short story by sci-fi legend Philip K. Dick whose work inspired the peerless Blade Runner among others. All told, then, The Adjustment Bureau has a hard task ahead of it in living up to such expectations. Perhaps wisely, it doesn’t even try.
The film follows an oxymoronically honest politician, David Norris (Matt Damon), who is well on his way to becoming the youngest senator in history. After losing his early lead in the polls, he retreats to the men’s toilet, where he meets the enigmatic Elise (Emily Blunt) and promptly falls in love. However, the mysterious forces of fate, personified by a group of men in shady suits and hats, are out to stop him from ever seeing her again. What ensues is the action-packed, Bourne-esque struggle of one man against a vast conspiracy, interwoven with a burgeoning romance.
It’s not a film with any of the intellectual rigour and cinematic bravery of Inception, and it doesn’t raise the complex questions which Blade Runner does. Nevertheless, it works for two reasons. Firstly, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. This isn’t to say it’s a barrel of laughs, but it’s brash, colourful and clearly aware, though unashamed, of the fact that it’s telling a somewhat hokey story. From the pleasingly satiric take on bureaucracy to the stricken cries of ‘Hat! Hat!’ as one of David Norris’s supernatural pursuers drops his headwear and panics, the tongue-in-cheek element saves a film which could have been insufferable if it had pretended to be deep and thought-provoking. Secondly, the main characters’ developing relationship is actually handled very well indeed, with enough on-screen chemistry to overcome the slight whiff of cheese around the ‘love at first sight’ cliché.
Damon and Blunt are more than capable of injecting an ever-so-slightly suspect script with enough genuine warmth and charm to support the film’s premise – you can really believe that Damon would be willing to fight for this woman who he’s only just met. Not only that, but the most interesting questions raised by the film come from this relationship, not from the over-emphasised ‘fate vs. free will’ theme. Is David Norris willing to sacrifice his potential love’s career for the sake of her being with him? Is he really that egotistical? It’s a question which can easily be seen applying to real-world situations, but here is given an interestingly fateful edge. Ultimately, then, it is this love affair which is the fundamental core of the film – not the supernatural men in hats – and it works very well.
Don’t rush out to see The Adjustment Bureau if you want to see a film as complex and daring as Inception. Inception may have proven certain Hollywood executives wrong and shown that mainstream films can pander to an intelligent audience and still be successful – The Adjustment Bureau, by contrast, has a vaguely original premise, but still feels like something we’ve seen before. However, The Adjustment Bureau is certainly worth a watch if you want something light and entertaining which nevertheless doesn’t assume that its audience is stupid.

It was perhaps inevitable that The Adjustment Bureau would end up being compared, by some reviewers, to last year’s Inception. Both films are big-budget thrillers with elements of the supernatural, starring rugged men with tragic pasts who willingly struggle against impossible odds for the sake of their children/the woman they met in the public loo (delete where appropriate). It doesn’t help that The Adjustment Bureau is also based on a short story by sci-fi legend Philip K. Dick whose work inspired the peerless Blade Runner among others. All told, then, The Adjustment Bureau has a hard task ahead of it in living up to such expectations. Perhaps wisely, it doesn’t even try.

The film follows an oxymoronically honest politician, David Norris (Matt Damon), who is well on his way to becoming the youngest senator in history. After losing his early lead in the polls, he retreats to the men’s toilet, where he meets the enigmatic Elise (Emily Blunt) and promptly falls in love. However, the mysterious forces of fate, personified by a group of men in shady suits and hats, are out to stop him from ever seeing her again. What ensues is the action-packed, Bourne-esque struggle of one man against a vast conspiracy, interwoven with a burgeoning romance.

It’s not a film with any of the intellectual rigour and cinematic bravery of Inception, and it doesn’t raise the complex questions which Blade Runner does. Nevertheless, it works for two reasons. Firstly, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. This isn’t to say it’s a barrel of laughs, but it’s brash, colourful and clearly aware, though unashamed, of the fact that it’s telling a somewhat hokey story. From the pleasingly satiric take on bureaucracy to the stricken cries of ‘Hat! Hat!’ as one of David Norris’s supernatural pursuers drops his headwear and panics, the tongue-in-cheek element saves a film which could have been insufferable if it had pretended to be deep and thought-provoking. Secondly, the main characters’ developing relationship is actually handled very well indeed, with enough on-screen chemistry to overcome the slight whiff of cheese around the ‘love at first sight’ cliché.

Damon and Blunt are more than capable of injecting an ever-so-slightly suspect script with enough genuine warmth and charm to support the film’s premise – you can really believe that Damon would be willing to fight for this woman who he’s only just met. Not only that, but the most interesting questions raised by the film come from this relationship, not from the over-emphasised ‘fate vs. free will’ theme. Is David Norris willing to sacrifice his potential love’s career for the sake of her being with him? Is he really that egotistical? It’s a question which can easily be seen applying to real-world situations, but here is given an interestingly fateful edge. Ultimately, then, it is this love affair which is the fundamental core of the film – not the supernatural men in hats – and it works very well.

Don’t rush out to see The Adjustment Bureau if you want to see a film as complex and daring as Inception. Inception may have proven certain Hollywood executives wrong and shown that mainstream films can pander to an intelligent audience and still be successful – The Adjustment Bureau, by contrast, has a vaguely original premise, but still feels like something we’ve seen before. However, The Adjustment Bureau is certainly worth a watch if you want something light and entertaining which nevertheless doesn’t assume that its audience is stupid.

 

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