We live in a world, where we have the choice to do certain things. We can choose to go out or stay in, listen to rock or country on the radio, or even have cream with your coffee or just have black. The choices we make is of our own free will. But what if our free will is just an illusion, where someone else is pulling our strings. What if the world we live in had no free will and everything we hope to achieve someday isn't part of the plan. The only people who could possibly know this is, The Adjustment Bureau.
The film starts with Matt Damon as David Norris, a charismatic politician who is running for senator of New York in 2006. However due to a scandal, which wasn't really explained that well, he loses his lead and prepares his concession speech in the men's room of the hotel his election party his held. While in there, he meets a woman named Elise, played by Emily Blunt, who happened to crash a wedding a floor above. They begin to talk and she encourages David to be more honest. Then after that, they kiss, politicians seem to get all the women. She leaves abruptly when security finds her and chases her out of the hotel and he goes off to deliver his speech, and because of Elise's words of wisdom he improvises a entirely a new one, which is now considered one of his greatest speeches in his life, making him a possible candidate for the next election. After that we then jump to 2010, where we meet a pair of mysterious men sitting at a park bench where they talk about David, and how he must spill his coffee at a certain time. However, the man assigned to this task happens to fall asleep and now the plan is off and David is now a target to this mysterious organization.
The movie had potential to be really good but it suffers from minor things that I would have liked to see fixed. One thing is the runtime, which looking back probably would be the hardest to fix, seeing how the movie is one big mystery and having it too short would just have us asking questions, and having it too long would make us say 'when is this going to be over?' but the film was about two-and-a-half hours, which made a lot of parts seem to drag. Another thing that I would have like to happen is a better explanation on what the Adjustment Bureau is and how it came to be. We do get some explanation, and it was a good one, but I wanted a tad bit more on who these people are. Finally, the ending, it's always the ending for these types of film isn't it? Anyway, the ending of the film does make you think, but it was a pretty weak "thinker" ending. Other films like Inception and The Matrix leave you with the question of 'is this real?' or 'is it all a dream?' and so does this film, but it felt weak as we get kind of a generic 'they all live happily ever after ending' which just didn't settle with me.
Besides all the negatives I did enjoy this film. The story was interesting, having us question our own life and if everything we do isn't really our own will. I'll admit, I'm a bit of a sucker for stories involving a higher power that secretly injects itself into our lives (the Machines placing us in the Matrix, or if the dream world is actually the real world like in Inception), and I like it more when it's not just a cheap way to convey the God message. Matt Damon plays a character I actually liked, the supporting cast was really good, and the effects were pretty cool. Emily Blunt however was, well she wasn't bad, but her performance was pretty forgettable, so she's up in the air on how I feel about her. Overall, the cast did their job very well and the story kept me interested and had me asking questions afterwards.
If you enjoy this type of story then by all means give it a shot. Fair warning that it does drag, so don't fall asleep or you may miss something.
MY RATING:
7/10
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