Movie Review: The Adjustment Bureau

Let me tell you what I had to go through to see this movie. The theater was showing both "The Adjustment Bureau" and "Rango". I went to the theater with the plan of seeing both. I showed up in time for "The Adjustment Bureau" as advertised, half an hour after the start of "Rango", only to find out that they were installing a new projector in that theater and they'd cancelled the showings of "The Adjustment Bureau" for the day.

But "Rango" would be showing in a little over two hours. So I went to the store clearance at Borders and... well, I won't tell you what I spent, but I saved $76. They had to get me a box.

I showed up for the next showing of "Rango". It was cancelled. Too many people coming to see "The Adjustment Bureau". So if I'd just wait yet another half hour beyond when "Rango" was to start I'd finally get to see the movie that I wanted to see three hours before.

That's a pretty good description of "The Adjustment Bureau" right there. Only I'm filling the role of Matt Damon.



Ever read any Discworld books? In particular the Death centered books? No? Then making comparisons to the Auditors in the Discworld and the Adjustors in this movie won't make any sense. If you have then you'll see the parallels.

There's these guys in grey outfits who look a bit like they're wearing the wardrobe discards from the show "Mad Men". They work for someone who may or may not be God. They look and feel human. Some are programmed to think they are human. There are many copies. And they have a plan.

Sorry. I'm getting distracted. They do have a plan. They don't understand it, but they have one. They have to keep Congressional candidate and Presidential hopeful Matt Damon from falling in love with potential famous dancer and choreographer Emily Blunt who wears this necklace that draws all kinds of attention to her cleavage.

That's a very short description of a movie that is much more than that. It's like calling "Titanic" a disaster movie at sea or saying that "Jurassic Park" is a dinosaur flick. All movies may be rehashes of old stories, but sometimes the quality of the telling makes it worthwhile. And this story was well told. They take the time to tell a good love story. They also show enough of the behind the scenes stuff of the Adjustment Bureau to make them interesting characters instead of just emotionless drones. The end is a bit awkward, but not enough to ruin the movie.

I think I'll probably get it on DVD. I highly recommend seeing it.

If it matters, this movie is based off of a Philip K Dick story. That puts it in with movies like "Blade Runner", "Total Recall", "Minority Report", "Paycheck", "A Scanner Darkly", and "Next". Quality stories with varying quality of story telling.