The Adjustment Bureau Review

To be perfectly honest, I’ve had enough of Matt Damon and his damn running. The Bourne films were awesome, mainly because he interspersed his running with the odd face jab or kick, but it seems to becoming more prevalent that Damon is basing his roles on the amounting of running within the script.

His most recent role finds him chasing a lost love, a girl he should have ended up with, but due to various fantastical reasons, his destiny with her was dodged, changed, and warped, (so he’d become the president of the United States. Obviously.)

With this relationship as the foundation of the narrative, The Adjustment Bureau becomes a romance film wrapped loosely within the trimmings of scifi/fantasy. Fantasy you ask? Yes, because the main plot device of the film is the use of angel-like creatures. They are men in suits who mince around in bowler hats with little notepads that reveal the life maps of people, life maps that they must ensure are followed.

Matt Damon’s character sidesteps his controlled fate when he meets a ballerina played by the marvellous Emily Blunt. The chemistry between the two is brilliant and makes his constant pursuit of her believable. But with his fawning after her meaning he is not reaching his written destiny the angels become involved, attempting to break the two up. The excitement of the film doesn't really kick in until the end when there is a chase scene and a whole lot of jargon is spilled out into the film, which ultimately just leads to Damon running around a lot. Again. And after all the running? A boring deux ex machina that will have most eyes rolling in annoyance.

So prior to the final triathlon, The Adjustment Bureau is simply rather a lot of romantic yearning and composition driven dialogue via suited men. Overall? Not nearly entertaining enough and it falls into the frequent trap of; seen the trailer? seen the film.

2/5