The Adjustment Bureau

This last weekend I decided that I needed to go to a movie.  I still want to see the Liam Neeson thriller Unknown, but it didn't have any showtimes to my liking.  It appears to be on its way out because it has limited showtimes available.  My brother had asked me to wait until he was in town to see Battle: Los Angeles so that we could go see it together, and as I looked at my other options I decided to watch The Adjustment Bureau.  I had heard decent reviews for it; the trailer made it look good enough; and the author of the book that it is based on penned the books responsible for a number of other good sci-fi movies including Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report.  Funnily, I have not seen any of those, but I generally like sci-fi movies, and I know that all of those were well-received when they came out.

The premise is that Matt Damon plays a young politician running for U.S. Senator in New York.  He meets Emily Blunt's character and falls in love as if they had always been meant to be together.  A strange group of men, the Adjustment Bureau, try to intervene and stop this relationship from developing saying that his life wasn't meant to include their meeting as if a higher authority had already mapped out his destiny.  He must now decide to listen and go down the path that was written for him or pursue his love for the only person who has ever given him a real reason to live.

To be honest, I expected a little more science fiction and a little less romance, but having said that, it was a rare occasion where I felt like I was watching a sci-fi movie my wife would actually enjoy watching.  The central relationship between Matt Damon and Emily Blunt's characters was convincing, and I cared about its outcome.  I also liked the sci-fi part of the movie where the bureau controls peoples' lives silently nudging them down the path that was predestined for them, and yet Matt Damon's character is determined to claim his free will.  It was a thought provoking story about our ability to make choices.

Even though the film would have served better as a date movie that both my wife and I could appreciate, I still  liked it.  It was not groundbreaking, but for a time of year before summer blockbusters arrive and long before the holiday Oscar contenders come out, it was competent and perfectly enjoyable.