Original View Date: March 5th, 2011
'The Adjustment Bureau' is a movie that makes you feel good inside. It's a film that has a weak start but one that I grew to like as it progressed on.
The story is a mix of romance and science fiction. David Norris, a politician meets Elise in the men's room and the two instantly fall in love with each other. They meet again later on a bus but Norris soon finds out that a secret agency called The Adjustment Bureau had different plans for them. It's got a basic setup for a romance film yet a quite interesting story.
The first problem I had with the film was the agents. They make careless mistakes and it made me think "What kind of agents are these?! They suck!" But the ending explains everything and I was impressed at how a short story was adapted into a feature length film. A little clunky romantic dialogue but overall the bad lines can be detected and soon forgotten. The two main characters are very likable and their chemistry worked. Maybe things were a little rushed. The movie isn't dragging or boring; it keeps building up for the audience and the climax is "climactic" - that's the only way it can be described. The ending can be debatable but I wasn't bothered by it at all.
There are plenty of conflicts for David Norris (the protagonist). He is given a choice: to choose love or the pursuit of his career. And he's given a boundary: to stay away from his loved one forever. The personal conflicts work dramatically and this also becomes the film's theme: free will.
Some parts of this movie are rushed. The characters lack interaction towards the climax and Elise just follows Norris around without a clue on what's going on. Plenty of room for improvement: more physical conflict between the protagonists and the antagonists would have built suspense on the chase scenes.
The major thing that bothered me was the kiss Matt Damon and Emily Blunt's characters had when they first met. I see that the filmmakers were trying to show that the two were instantly in love but it really bothered me because it was so out of the blue.
The other thing was the cliche factors. These agents...are dead cheesy. They stand in a straight line, they talk like spies and they wear a trench coat and a brim hat.
Yet overall, a really likable film; it's one of those films that you think about and then you like it even more. Definitely worth watching again.
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