The Adjustment Bureau

Men without hats.

The Adjustment Bureau is a fine little movie if you find yourself at home on a Tuesday night and all the other HBO On Demand selections are things you've already seen or look even more tedious.  Such was the situation for the wife and I this last Tuesday.  There isn't anything particularly egregiously bad about The Adjustment Bureau, but neither is there anything worth writing home or on your blog about.  Unless you're desperate for content...

George Nolfi directs Matt Damon as David Norris, rogue blue-collar congressman from the Bronx with a bright future, but also a penchant for forgetting he's a public figure and doing really stupid things.  So, not unlike a real life congressman.  Thus far his tomfollery has not cost him politically, but that's about to change.  During his race for the Senate seat, word gets out of some frat boy stunt and Norris finds himself in hot water.  One things leads to another, and the next thing he knows he's in a hotel men's room kissing a ballerina who is on the lam from hotel security.  Which as it turns out, is not nearly as tawdry as it sounds.

Norris is mesmerized by the security-dodging ballerina Elsie Sellas, played by Emily Blunt, and the two attempt to strike up a romance.  I say attempt  because a shadowy group of men in hats are determined to keep them apart.  Yes, you read that right.

The hatted gentleman are members of the--you guessed it--Adjustment Bureau.  Employed by someone called The Chairman, it's their job to keep things going according to plan and to make, ahem, adjustments when things start to go off course.  Who or what they are and who exactly The Chairman is is hinted at, and sorta kinda nebulous, but they are equipped with a few special skills to accomplish their task.  Like the hats, for instance.  And some really spiffy notebooks.  However, they are not all powerful and have rules they must follow as well.

The bulk of the movie is Norris' quest to discover why the Adjustment Bureau has it in for him and why he and Elsie aren't supposed to be together.

The movie is based on Philip K. Dick story The Adjustment Team.  I've never read any Philip K. Dick, but the movies I've seen based on his works (Minority Report and Blade Runner) deal a lot with free will and if  it really exists or not, and this one has themes along those same lines.  It's sorta Matrix-y in that way.

The performances are fine.  Damon and Blunt are fine as the leads, and though I found Blunt's character to be a little annoying and not someone I would want to spend a lot of time with, Damon's attraction to her was believable enough.  The Adjustment Bureau squad members include Anthony Mackie, Terrance Stamp, and Mad Men's John Slattery, who apparently can only take roles where he wears finely tailored suits.  In their roles, all three are just...fine.

Fine.  That about sums it all up.  It's a fine caper-ish mix of sci-fi and thriller, with a dash of romance.  The ending left me a little flat, leaving some lose ends to the imagination, but not in a really satisfying way.  But, it's a fine little movie, especially if you're a fan of millinery, as I am, and find yourself with nothing better to do on a Tuesday night.