Review: The Adjustment Bureau

daniel cohen reviews the latest thriller starring Matt Damon …

Plot: A young and rising politician (Matt Damon) from New York falls in love with a dancer (Emily Blunt), but a mysterious organization drives to keep them apart as it will disrupt the politician’s future.

At this point, I don’t think it’s possible for Matt Damon to make a bad movie. Even in his sub-par films, you at least manage to say, “Well, he was good, though.” The Adjustment Bureau is a real solid movie. But its strongest attribute is indeed the casting. Damon, Emily Blunt, Terence Stamp, John Slattery. These guys elevated slightly mediocre material, but nevertheless, there’s a lot to like in The Adjustment Bureau that outweighs the not so good elements.

First of all, I’m always weary of these conspiracy theory thrillers. They are usually long, boring, excruciating movies where the characters only serve as plot devices. That’s not happening here. This is quick-paced and actually focuses on the characters. David Norris (Damon) is introduced in a way that we totally get his character in the first 10 minutes. There’s a great scene in the beginning where he gives this memorable speech. This had nothing to do with mysterious organizations or kooky mind games; it’s just a great scene. Elise (Blunt) is also introduced in a similar way in that we understand her immediately. When Norris and Elise first meet, it’s such a well-written scene that the audience totally buys their passion for each other, which ultimately drives the film. And it’s the likability of these people that keeps you interested, and not the creepy organization.

But let’s get into the creepy organization. The Adjustment Bureau (although I don’t think they ever refer to themselves as a name) is made up of a bunch of guys with bad-ass looking hats who stare at people on maps that look like Garmins on steroids. I like that this group isn’t invincible. They make it clear their powers have limits. They can influence subtle events, but it’s not like they are all powerful. Nowm they do a lot of things that will make you say, “What the hell! How did they do that?” But the movie does a good job of explaining their powers throughout the course of the film. You know enough as an individual scene plays out. The big question of this organization’s existence and purpose is explained, so no need to worry about that.

There are some areas where their power is explained poorly. There’s a big thing with them being able to open doors to areas of New York. This is kind of touched upon, but is explained pretty badly. It’s the kind of thing where you need a second viewing, but I don’t know, I think it was a bit of lazy writing. There are also a couple elements that limit their power which are never really explained.

For an organization that has supernatural powers and resources, they screw up a lot. One of the main Adjustment guys, Norrism deals with is Richardson (Slattery), who I found really funny in the movie. At times, I felt like the interplay between Norris and Richardson was like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Norris screws with these guys a lot. Although the film makes a very good point early on that Norris is a challenging adversary. And when Thompson (Stamp) shows up, the Adjustment Bureau isn’t messing around anymore. And really, you can’t go wrong with Terence Stamp.

The big draw back to this movie is unfortunately the ending. It’s a bit of a copout. It’s a logical ending, but the writers really could have put a little more effort into it. With these kinds of movies, you always expect some big “OMG” moment at the end. It doesn’t have that. Even though I was disappointed with the end, I didn’t leave angry because it’s not like this was some big two and a half hour “screws with your mind” movie, otherwise I would have been pissed. It’s less than two hours with likable characters and entertaining all the way through. It doesn’t really try to have grand aspirations. That sounds like a criticism, but I appreciated the simplicity and character development rather than a clunky conspiracy piece. Because of that, The Adjustment Bureau isn’t great, but it’s a solid movie.

Rating: 7 out of 10 (Good)