The Adjustment Bureau

Many things bugged me during 2011's THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU, but the corker was how inept this "Bureau" was in carrying out its business; business that involved no less than the fate of the world. More specifically, how Life (macro- and microcosmically) is to play out for human beings. Every choice we think we make, every alleged coincidence-it's entirely engineered by an all-male, suit and tie clad corporation who work for "the Chairman". There is a master blueprint and it must be followed. Deviations have unimaginable consequences.

As I said, these guys are pretty sloppy. One of them falls asleep on a bench and is too late to prevent a somewhat reckless New York Congressman named David Norris (Matt Damon) from meeting a quirky woman named Elise (Emily Blunt) on a city bus. Best howler of a line from the Bureau: "He takes the same bus every day for years? Who does that?" Additionally, someone else utters the old standby: "It's above my pay grade," second only to "I'm too old for this shit" in the Movie Quote Cliche Pantheon. I don't recall if "He's gone rogue" was spoken, but it might as well have been.

In any event, Norris had previously met Elise in a washroom a month earlier while he was rehearsing a speech. Chemistry was evident then and continues as he flirts with her, learning she is a promising dancer. Destined for each other? Two souls with infinite potential and talent, capable of Bigger Things? On the road to worldly acclaim and success is that pesky detour called Love. Apparently for these two, the Chairman does not want that to happen. Now you know why you and your eighth grade crush didn't end up being lifelong soulmmates.

Norris is eventually apprehended and introduced to the shadowy organization led terrestrially by Richardson, who explains their modus operandi . They are not exactly angels, rather more like insurance agents. "Free will", Richardson explains, once did indeed belong to the human race until The Dark Ages, then was given back, then taken away again after two World Wars and nuclear proliferation. Perhaps it might've been more interesting in this story, after all of this is explained, to have had Norris travel back in time and bump off Robert Oppenheimer.

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU, very loosely based on Philip K. Dick's "Adjustment Team" will go on to explain how the team works, including their employment of "adjustment", an erasing of one's mind in the short term and the far darker "reset", which is basically a labotomy. This will happen to Norris, Richardson warns him, if he tells anyone about the Bureau.

The remainder of the film is less concerned with sci-fi, with a definite emphasis on wooing its audiences with a "Love Conquers All" scenario. Norris will repeatedly outsmart the Bureau until a big gun named Thompson (Terrence Stamp), a real pro at reigning in the loose canons in the free will game, shows up to lay down the metaphysical law. He will explain the Chairman's Plan, what is expected of each of them, and how selfish it would be of Norris to wander from The Path.

The closing scenes are unabashedly romantic, at least thematically recalling the finale of WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, where Robin Williams' character not only accepts possibly living in Hell for eternity to be with his love, but then later being reborn on Earth so he can meet her again. It's effective in a bathos-saturated sorta way, but leaving you with the same feeling as if you've just scarfed half of a layer cake.

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU is one of many films that lives more in its ideas than its execution. I'll bet that many viewers can build more interesting storylines and outcomes than what writer/director George Nolfi does here. Having the Bureau so clumsy in its efforts - seemingly to drive the film's cozy messages - does not help matters. Opportunities for some theological exploration are jettisoned early. The actors are appealing and the film is reasonably entertaining, but it is not an exemplary Dick adaptation. Though how many have there been? You're better off breaking out the paperbacks or Kindle.