The Adjustment Bureau: Where there’s a will

What seems like an intriguing science fiction film soon descends into mush.

The age-old philosophical debate between free will and destiny has seen a recurrence in pop culture in recent years with television shows like “Lost” and “Heroes”, with varying degrees of success, exploring if its characters are mere pawns of unseen powers or agents of their destiny. What Socrates couldn’t answer, Hollywood has no trouble with. Free will and destiny both co-exist and whichever happens to be in charge depends on plot mechanics.

For the first 10 of its 100-minute running time, it looks like The Adjustment Bureau is going to ask the same question throughout the movie; then it suddenly provides the answer in the crudest way possible. That happens when fledgling politician David Norris (Matt Damon) ambles into his office and finds an un-conscious colleague having his head scanned by an unknown man. Norris, too, is captured and the philosophy of the movie is laid open in a burst of clumsy exposition. The unknown man tells Norris that he is working for the unseen Chairman to ensure that a never-revealed plan stays on track.

What seems like an intriguing science fiction film that wasn’t particularly artful in how it handled its concept soon descends into mush. The plan, as it turns out, will veer off course if Damon ends up with the woman he loves, Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt). This is the entirety of the film. Norris tries to defeat the machinations of the Chairman’s minions but Sellas is always just out of his reach. Since the viewer is never told what the plan is, we can never be sure exactly what the ramifications would be were the two to end up together. A little hint of menace could have come from Harry Mitchell (Anthony Mackie), an agent of the Chairman, but he is exceedingly sympathetic to Damon and so provides him with as many answers as he can.

Adding to the bizarrely surreal touch of the movie is the fact that the New York City of The Adjustment Bureau seems to exist outsides the rules of space and time. Doors seem to open up into random worlds and the city seems to be filled with portals. All the sci-fi elements, though, are not treated with any seriousness. These tropes exist only to surprise the audience not to enlighten them or make them think. Science fiction is the hook with which to reel audiences in; what they’re really getting is a tongue-in-cheek thriller with romance at its heart.

Director George Nofli, who has based the movie on a short story by legendary science-fiction writer Philip K Dick, doesn’t quite have the courage of Dick’s convictions. The Adjustment Plan, which Nofli has very loosely adapted, was suffused with paranoia and was far murkier with its philosophy. Nofli is more interested in directing a romantic movie. That could have worked given the exceptional chemistry between Damon and Blunt. However, since the plot is predicated on keeping the two apart, we don’t actually get to see much of that sizzling chemistry. What you do see, unfortunately, is a lot of people running around without actually getting anywhere, an image that sums up the experience of watching The Adjustment Bureau.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, April 17^th,  2011.