Review: The Adjustment Bureau

 Universal Pictures

The Adjustment Bureau is a cool sci-fi love story. Matt Damon plays David Norris, an up and coming New York congressman making a big play for the US Senate. Everything is on track until the New York Post publishes some old pictures of him engaging in youthful indiscretion, specifically, pulling his pants down at a party. This is enough to crush his campaign, and on election night, glum and full of self recrimination, he practices his concession speech in a swanky hotel bathroom. Then, a ray of hope: Elise (Emily Blunt) emerges quite unexpectedly from one of the stalls, where she had been hiding from hotel security, caught in the act of crashing a wedding. Carrying a half empty bottle of what is probably very good champagne, the irreverent Elise immediately recognizes David (“Aren’t you that guy who’s running for Senate?”) and proceeds to tease, flirt and cajole him out of his mood and back into fighting form. He is instantly smitten, so is she, but then security shows up and she has to run, the girl of David’s dreams disappearing down a hotel staircase. But, inspired by his brief encounter, David tosses his index cards and gives a stirring speech to his supporters. His political fortunes, though delayed, are back on track. 

But the path of true love, and Matt Damon characters, never runs smooth.  On a sunny New York morning, when David has just set out for work (his between campaigns gig) it appears that two men are tracking him. “He needs to spill coffee on his shirt by 7:05,” Richardson (John Slattery) tells Harry (Anthony Mackie) and Harry wearily agrees but then he dozes off on a park bench, missing the cue. Meanwhile, David hops a bus and miraculously, spots Elise. Sparks fly, and this time he gets her number, but then the day takes an ominous turn. David arrives at work to discover strange doings: his co-workers are frozen in time, and his friend and colleague Charlie is getting zapped by a mysterious light beam; the Adjustment Bureau is busily making changes to the fabric of fate that spilled coffee was supposed to prevent David from seeing. Richardson corrals him and then tells him the truth: his future is not his own to plan. And, incidentally, he’s not supposed to be with Elise.

Since Matt Damon has made a career of playing stubborn rogue tough guys, we all know he’s not going to let Elise slip away just because John Slattery tells him to. And so the adventure takes off, with lots of twists and turns and elaborate foot chases through Manhattan. Along the way we are asked to speculate on what choices we would make if we knew in advance what the outcomes would be: White picket fence in the suburbs? Fame and fortune, but no satisfying personal life?

Based on a Philip K. Dick short story (it's like screenwriter and director George Nolfi read the story and decided to write another chapter of his own)The Adjustment Bureau is a fun film, and a great night out in the midst of late winter movie doldrums. Damon and Blunt have crackling chemistry, Slattery’s usual ironic light touch provides welcome amusement, and Anthony Mackie is terrific as the Adjustment Bureau “caseworker” who isn't certain that the team is making the right decisions.  Playing everywhere. B