David Norris (Matt Damon) and Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt) during one of the calmer moments of "The Adjustment Bureau." Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures.
By Mariana Llamas-Cendon / Amigos805.com
I recently read the opinions of critics about “The Adjustment Bureau” and I found them a bit unbalanced and in fact, quite uncertain.
“The Adjustment Bureau” stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt and is based on Philip K. Dick’s short story “The Adjustment Team” published in 1954. The movie hasn’t received the best reviews since its opened in early March but there is more to the story than just the chemistry between the two main actors.
It isn’t an action movie, a blockbuster or a romantic chick flick, it is a film based in a noir-style story quite characteristic of Dick as we have already seen in another film released in 1982 also based in one of his novels: “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” That movie is better known as “Blade Runner” starring Sean Young and Harrison Ford in a sci-fi love story between a “replicant” and its hunter.
As opposed to “Blade Runner,” “The Adjustment Bureau” does have sci-fi elements but it could be categorized as a romantic thriller that deeply explores a variety of philosophies about fate and free will. Is our destiny fixed and unchangeable or are our actions and decisions build it every second of the way? What chance has to do with it?
David Norris (Matt Damon) is a politician aiming for a seat on the New York’s senate when he meets Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt), a ballerina. He almost immediately falls in love with her without knowing that their fate isn’t meant to be together. However, due to certain mistakes from one of the officers from the “bureau,” chance takes the lead by making this two people bounced into each other, lighting the flame of interest again. Since their union wasn’t supposed to happen, the Adjustment Bureau, a group of beings invisible to human eyes who apparently live in a parallel universe, have to make sure the couple stay away from each other by “adjusting” their free will to the life map traced for them by the “chairman,” a.k.a God.
David Norris, with a little help from one of the officers from the bureau, challenges his and Elise’s fate so they can be together, disregarding that their destiny could restrain their own personal dreams and hopes for the future. The couple’s struggle to remain as an item is so persistent, that defying their individual “plan” becomes a matter of life or “oblivion.”
Sure “The Adjustment Bureau” isn’t a huge commercial hit, but no matter what the critics said about it, I recommend experiencing it for yourself and then drawing your own conclusions because this is the type of film that you either love or hate but don’t let anyone tell you which category you should place your likes in.