The Adjustment Bureau ~~~

I think I was expecting an expanded episode of the rather great American sci-fi series ‘Fringe’, where mysterious ‘watchers’ pop up and keep tabs on humans making sure they stick to ‘the plan’. In one sense I got that but in another I got an altogether lighter and more accessible rom-com-ish adventure.

Weird.

First point up. I heart Matt Damon. Now I do. Years ago I really didn’t and yes, I was heavily influenced by the terribly vulgar but amusing ‘Team America’ gang. “Matt Damonnnnnnnn”. Then came Bourne. Then came all the other good stuff he keeps delivering. He’s very believable and unlike other great actors, Big Russ Crowe, George Clooney and Brad of the Pitt to name but a few, I always forget it’s him. In a good way. What I mean is, for such a big star, Damon manages to ‘be’ his characters. I see them, not him. Which is a good thing.

Secondly, as much as I love Emily Blunt I wish her lovely plumy English accent wasn’t now parked quite as centrally as it is in the mid-Atlantic. Bit annoying but presumably a result of living in the US for the work. Correct me if I’m wrong. She is a great actress though and when she smiles, her whole face changes and sucks you in to her. Quite charming really.

Thirdly, although very sweet and quite unique, the whole film was a bit too ‘lite’ for me.

Story goes a bit like this… boy meets girl, they fall in love, stars and love hearts twinkle and bubble all over the place but the powers that be, namely the ‘Adjustment Bureau’, soon find out and try to put a stop to them being together. Are they angels, demons, aliens or God? Whatever. They don’t like it and it isn’t in the plan. Everyone’s got a day job to do so they do all they can to break them up and when they finally lose control of the situation, the couple try to beat them at their own spooky, space shifting games. Ugh? Essentially Damon is destined for greatness in politics and Blunt is set to be the greatest dancer in the USA so you see, you can’t have it all, can you?

There’s lots of humour in this film, more than I had expected, and it lent itself pretty nicely to keeping everything quite buoyant and pacey. The whole cast is pretty spot on with the exception of one of the Bureau members being a fella from the TV series ‘Mad Men’. Not that he was bad, far from it, but it was incredibly distracting to have him in the flick dressed exactly as he is in the series – trilby and mac, anyone?

The one major issue I had with the film, and it lingered long after having seen it, was that there was absolutely no menace. No frights. No real tension throughout, and for a wannabe ‘thriller’, that was a bit of a problem. Everything was lovely and ‘nice’. I could have done with a lot more thrill and happily traded it for a lot less lovey-dovey stuff. Hard women, or what?!?

‘The Adjustment Bureau’ could easily have planted its feet a little more firmly in the rom-com arena or the sci-fi camp but ultimately seemed to fudged it by trying to straddle both genres. Unique but ultimately a little bit of a bore. Perversely, I would recommend this film as I think there may be more to it than one first viewing. It looked good, sounded good, felt good. Just could have been a bit rougher.

A star spot I have to mention was that Jennifer Ehle pops up as a barmaid. How odd.

Anyway, what did I learn from this little tale? Well, Emily’s a much better dancer than me, Matt should probably run for President and there is no God. Only destiny. Lovely.

Viewed: 9th March 2011