"If you ever reveal what you've seen, we'll erase your brain." That's just one
of the threats wielded by the people who run The Adjustment Bureau. Their
mission is to administer the covert control of human behavior that is already
within their power. "We are the people who make sure things happen according to
plan." They are a band of bureaucrats from another dimension who make sure we
all stay on our assigned paths. They don't mess with emotions though - "Too
intrusive," they say. If we deviate for one unpredicted reason or another from
our plan, the bureau will "make an adjustment." The adjustment could be a
partial brain erasure or a behavior correction that throws us back on track.
The planners
aren't villains in the true sense. In the same way that parents set the daily
schedules for small children, this invisible group sets the schedules and
blueprints for everyone throughout life. What might life be like if parents, or
another force, had the undetectable power to monitor us beyond childhood and to
reset the deviations? This is an intriguing invitation to consider fate and free
will - a neat premise for a good thriller.
David Norris
(Matt Damon) learns all this the hard way when he reports to his new job and
stumbles accidentally on the Adjustment Bureau as they are making a "personal
adjustment" to the office staff. All employees are for a moment frozen in place
while the adjustment is made. After witnessing this extraordinary scene, David
is told he is free to return to his own life as long as he reveals his discovery
to no one and never deviates from his life's path. Penalty for deviation: brain
erasure. Uh Oh. We all know what happens when we fall in love.
David meets
Elise (Emily Blunt), and the die is cast. Recognizing instant love when he sees
it, Bureau handler Richardson (John Slattery) resets David so that for three
full years he searches in vain for Elise. Chief Richardson's final warning: if
you stay together, you lose your dreams and she loses hers. In spite of his
lofty political ambitions and her dreams of success in dance, Elise and David
decide to pursue life and free will together. This full scale deviation from the
plan brings on the story's hyper action chase.
By managing
to generate on film the chemistry of old fashioned romance, Matt Damon and Emily
Blunt have lifted the movie right up and out of the ordinary. Beyond their happy
physical connection, there is the obvious delight each has in the company of the
other, a feeling of wondrous surprise at finding each other. That's the hardest
kind of assignment for actors, and these two convey a spontaneous, effortless
joy that puts us right there beside them as they navigate the obstacles strewn
in their paths by the Bureau. How about that for a welcome gift in these cynical
times?
Copyright (c) Illusion