movies: the adjustment bureau

Do you know how long it's been since we went to the movies? Two months today! I think that's a record since we started doing movies regularly, and certainly a record while I've been running the blog. I knew it was a long while, but two months!

And the movie to break the drought... The Adjustment Bureau.

How much of your destiny is your own, and how much of it is predetermined... or guided by an external force? Much more than you would think according to this movie.

To be honest I was expecting more of a science fiction vibe... especially since it's "loosely" based on a short story by Philip K Dick... but what I ended up with was something with much more of a religious feel.

In essence, they tried very hard to be non-specific about who or what The Adjustment Bureau was, but they seemed to be closer to angels than to any other explanation... especially given the references to the mysterious "Chairman" running the whole show.

And in a way, that didn't work quite as well for me as it could have without the religious overtones.

It also left like it was borrowing somewhat heavily from The Matrix. More so the concepts from the later movies... but also the idea that "everything that happens, happens and couldn't have happened any other way"... and the idea that "anyone wearing a hat" can be "one of them". But maybe that's more that the Matrix was inspired by the original story rather than the other way around, I don't know.

Fortunately I never get tired of watching Matt Damon... and he's in his element here as a slightly Barrack Obama-eske yet hot-headed senator who is headed for great things.

Emily Blunt (who I think I've seen in other stuff every time I see her name, but it turns out this is the first thing I've actually seen her in) is equally watchable as the somewhat mysterious (at least to start with) Elise.

The stand-out performance though has to go to Anthony Mackie... it's very understated, but you can sense the layers there, even if they're never fully explained.

Overall though it is a little slow going... and for a movie that seems to be selling itself (from the poster at least) as a movie that should have a lot of chasing in it, there was much less running and chasing than I was expecting. And it also feels slightly like stuff we've seen before... but it's still worth watching.

yani's rating: 2 ripples out of 5