mita

The Adjustment Bureau (2011).

I thought the idea behind this movie was innovative. The Supreme Being (God, whatever you may want to call it) was represented as “The Chairman” of a corporation-like entity called “The Adjustment Bureau” with the Angels (Minions? Demi-Gods? Saints? etc) as bureaucrats whose sole job was to make sure that humans stayed on the Plan that the Chairman had written for them. Matt Damon played David, the up-&-coming New York politician who was determined to fight this Plan (or fate) when Chance kept reuniting him with what could possibly be his soulmate Elise, played by Emily Blunt, even though she was not meant to be with him, according to the Plan.

The movie ruminates over the ideas of free will & chance VS fate & destiny, which I personally find terribly interesting. I actually see more potential for the film than what was explored (eg. What was Chance? It would have been more interesting if there was a competing bureau filled with Chance bureaucrats). It really was primarily a love story & the one thing they did right was to cast Matt Damon & Emily Blunt as the soulmates, as their easy, crackling chemistry was possibly the strongest element of the movie. The one thing the filmmakers did wrong however was to promote the movie as an action flick (ie. “Bourne meets Inception”), because though there were some crafty action sequences involving doors (was it a reference to the Roman God Janus?), the story very much revolved around the romantic tale between David & Elise & whether or not they get to be together.

I very much liked the look of the movie though. All the male characters, David & all the Adjustment bureaucrats, were supremely well-dressed in suits, with the latter sporting their signature hats, creating a film noir effect. This 1920s-1930s feel was also supported by the focus on Art Deco through the buildings they chose, which are abundant in NYC, & even in the font they used.