THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in what is being billed as “Bourne Meets INCEPTION” and thankfully it is not.
Not that last statement is not intended to give the impression that I dislike either Bourne or INCEPTION because I love the two but THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU is something else entirely different, not just carbon copies. Matt Damon stars as David Norris, the youngest US congressman facing his first ever election for a seat in the Senate. Even though he is the favourite, a picture of him mooning at a college reunion party destroies his campaign and he loses. Practising his losers speech in the men’s room he is surprised to find Elise (Emily Blunt) who is hiding out from the hotel security for crashing a wedding. They immediately click and share a kiss that spurs David to give a less than typical speech lifting the veil behind the falseness of politics and making him into somewhat of a national hero.
What David doesn’t know is that this is all part of a predetermined fate governed by a group of hat wearing men whose job it is to make sure that everyone stays on their intended path. David stumbles across them when he begins to veer from his course which forces him to choose between reaching his potential or being with his dream girl.
The film sits in this emerging action/sci-fi genre which has seen the likes of INCEPTION and THE MATRIX which it shares similarities to the latter. The idea is interesting and different from most big budget Hollywood affairs. At the heart of the film though is not the concept of fate or God but the film is actually a love story and that is what makes the film good. The chemistry between the two leads seems genuine and the flirtatious banter between the two is fun and you could believe that the couple should be together.
The forces trying to keep them apart in ‘agent’ like men running around never seem to be that much of a threat as they won’t kill or hurt anyone. There is a threat of David having his brain wiped but there is never a thought in the viewers head that it’s actually going to happen. Also the ‘agents’ have some very strange kryptonite issues, being that their senses and powers are dulled around large bodies of water and they cannot navigate around the world without their hats.
Overall the film and characters are fun and believable and even with the inclusion of a religious element never seems preachy or false. The one major problem is that David keeps dropping Elise because he is convinced to each time by the various agents. It would of been nice if he had made up his mind and stuck to it but it does not ruin the film. So go and see it.
THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU is out today.
