Starring: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Michael Kelly, Terence Stamp
Directed By: George J. Nolfi
Run Time: 1 hour 46 minutes
After David Norris (played by Damon) loses his first congressional race, he meets the woman of his dreams (played by Blunt). A few months later, he runs into her again quite by accident... and not at all according to plan. He wasn't supposed to run into her again and that mistake leads him to discover that there are mysterious people shaping our lives, people who are apart of the Adjustment Bureau. The agents apply pressure and tell him that if he tells anyone about the Adjustment Bureau or tries to contact Elise again (who isn't part of his future according the Bureau), they will erase his memory. David just can't stop thinking about this woman and three years later, quite by chance again, he runs into her. The Bureau isn't happy. They explain to David that he either gives up Elise to let them both live wonderful lives or staying with her will change their fate for the worse. He must choose between a life of greatness without Elise or a life of misery but with the woman he loves.
I thought this movie would be more subtle about pre-destined paths/God/angels than it really is. It upsets me to think that someone has written the story of our lives and that we can't alter the plan. Deviating from the already defined agenda causes unseen forces to revise external factors so that we fall in line with the written plan. Traffic jams that cause you to be late, a long line at the coffee shop, spilling something on yourself so you have to change clothes - all things designed to make you miss something that would have changed how you would live your life. And when those things don't work, the Bureau just performs a mind sweep and physically changes your mind about something. Of course, the next time there's an unusually long line at McDonald's or my alarm didn't go off in the morning, I'll know that the Bureau is just messing with my course. I will have to wonder at those times - who was I supposed to run into that now I'll never get to meet?
I'm not sure I like how this movie ends. Should everyone do what David did then if you don't like how your life has been scripted to turn out? And why doesn't everyone get that chance?
I thought the ending would be more powerful. I did wonder how it would get resolved and I envisioned a rather weak explanation of how things work in the Bureau. The ending did indeed work but I expected to have more of an impact, feel a bit more moved by the ending. I had definitely picked how I thought David should resolve the issue when the two fates were proposed to him. He didn't go that route, and that troubled me a bit.
This is definitely a unique storyline, one that raises a lot of debates between divine right and free will. On one hand, I do find the explanation of why there has to be traffic to be a bit comforting. On the other hand, I simply do not understand the notion of a supreme being controlling what people do. If there's someone writing all of our scripts for us, why are there murders? Why is there child abuse? Why is there famine? I understand that the bad things in life help shape who we are, make us stronger, but the really bad things don't seem to be right (particularly if someone wrote that into our plan) or fair, particularly if you can do nothing to avoid those bad things. So troubling.
It's a decent movie. It's well acted. David is definitely a charismatic character. I wish there was more to the Elise character, that we had more time to see what made her truly worth the risk for David. She was exhilarating and so different from the suit wearing David but I think we needed one more scene with her to truly understand the connection, what made her special. The agent Harry (played by Mackie) - was he tired or did he actually let his emotions interfere with his watch over David? I wish he hadn't fallen asleep on the bench. I wish he had watched Elise board the bus and actually decided to let David run into her. I think Thompson (played by Stamp) needed to be more ruthless, actually live up to his "Hammer" moniker. He seemed like he had a heart, too.
I wish there were more a little more to this movie. I think exposing the Bureau so quickly on in the movie left it flat. I also am not a fan of the message. I'm not sure how to rate this movie or if I should tell you to see it. I liked it... but I didn't. It was missing that something extra. If you do see it, we'll have to talk about how you think David should have proceeded after he was told about the two different fate lines that were dependent on his actions.
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