The Adjustment Bureau

Roger Ebert started his review by saying, “Here I go again. I'll be helpless to stop myself. "The Adjustment Bureau" is about the conflict between free will and predestination, and right there, you have the whole dilemma of life, don't you? Either it makes a difference what you choose to do, or the book had already been written, and all you can do is turn the pages.”

Since these questions are asked in a science-fiction thriller with a romance at the center, it should not be surprising. Sci-fi gives everyone the freedom of playing with realism, and few writers did that with more complexity than Philip K. Dick. This movie written and directed by George Nolfi is based on a Dick story about a legion of “adjusters” who move a strange thing there and a known thing here, just to be sure everything goes according to plan. Whose plan? The adjusters don’t explain things. They’re like undercover agents for the free will of your choice.

Ebert said, “But the best-laid plans of mice and men sometimes stray. Random chance barges in, and its interference must be corrected.” In “The Adjustment Bureau,” released in 2011, Matt Damon plays a congressional candidate named David Morris, who walks into a men’s room he has every reason to think is empty, and who should exit one of the stalls but Elise Sellas, played by Emily Blunt. What was she doing here? Ebert answered, “You don't cross-examine a Meet Cute. The important thing is, these two people, who were never intended to meet, have that particular chemistry that means they're a perfect romantic match. They know it, we know it, and when their eyes and lips meet, their stories become entangled.”

Ebert continued, “Phillip Dick was intrigued by devices that allowed him to examine the mechanisms by which life unfolds. I think he voted for free will in the short run (the span of intelligent life on Earth, say), evolution for the middle distance (things develop according to underlying principles) and predestination in the long run (the universe will entropy and cease). A man and a woman whose eyes Meet Cute need only be concerned about the very short run.”

In the movie, David Morris becomes aware of certain men wearing suits and fedoras, who strangely start to show up on his way. He meets two of them: Mitchell and Richardson, played by Anthony Mackie and John Slattery. They explain that they work for a bureau that makes corrections when things go a little wrong. For example, David and Elise were not supposed to meet. What was she doing in the men’s room, anyway? For her sake and his, David must never see her again.

This is where it gets exciting. They do encounter each other again, once again by pure chance. However, this time, they recognize each other because they had met earlier. Ebert said, “It is possible the second time they see each other was intended to be the first time, in which case (if you follow me) they would not necessarily even notice one another. Seeing a woman on the bus isn't the same thing as getting into a conversation with her in a men's room. So answer me this: When the adjusters urge David to forget about Elise and never see her again, aren't they asking him to exercise his free will? Aren't they implying he has a choice?”

Ebert continued, “So you might think, but "The Adjustment Bureau" reveals a hidden level of reality by which players can be yanked out of the game. David is confronted in a cavernous industrial space and warned that if he doesn't straighten up, his memory will be erased. This space is reached through a doorway to a place that has no logical possibility of existence; it must be like the bedroom beyond Jupiter in "2001," which was summoned by a greater intelligence to provide the illusion of a familiar space for an unwitting subject.”

The story develops into a cat-and-mouse game mentally, where David and Elise, in love and feeling like they’re destine for each other, try to outsmart or escape the men in the suits and fedoras. This is fun, and because Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have an easy link, it doesn’t feel as ridiculous as it is. Underneath its obvious sci-fi genre, a romantic comedy is hidden.

Ebert said, “If you're like me, you're thinking the universe in this movie is run by a singularly inefficient designer. There is no room for chance in predestination. If there is a plan, you can't allow tinkering. There's a well-known sci-fi precept that warns if you travel back far enough in time and step on the wrong insect, you could wipe out the future.” By the time we meet a really serious senior adviser named Thompson, played by Terence Stamp, we begin to think that his employer has misbeliefs of majesty.

Thompson gives the appearance of being strictly in control and knowing exactly what to do, but his problem is, David and Elise have seen the reality and know they can’t be pawns of a plan. There’s even the exciting chance that the Adjusters themselves have some freedom of choice.

“The Adjustment Bureau” is a smart and good movie that could have been a great one if it took a little more chance. Ebert said, “I suspect the filmmakers were reluctant to follow its implications too far. What David and Elise signify by their adventures, I think, is that we're all in this together, and we're all on our own. If you follow that through, the implications are treacherous to some, not all, religions.” However, in the short run, the movie is somewhat a heartwarming entertainment.

You could say that this film is in the same vein as “Inception.” I feel like a lot of films fall in the same category as that film, seeing how they all are those mind-boggling type of films that really play with you mentally. See the movie, if you want to know what I mean. Just to let you know, this is a good movie. If you’re a Matt Damon fan, you will love this movie, I promise.

Stay tuned next week when I look at a heartwarming film in “Matt Damon Month.” I’m sorry for posting this late, I had completely forgotten to type this up today.