I’m a believer…but I’m not God. I say that because I have an overall Big Picture view of how things work, but this movie totally made me think. I think there are many ways to approach the overall subject of destiny but this one truly made me wonder. So, I’ll start this review by saying The Adjustment Bureau is a “Thinking man’s” movie.
David Norris is a rough, tough New Yorker. He’s smart, savvy and raised in the “hood”. The local favorite Bad Boy so to speak. He’s a Senator, come up through the ranks of the people. David truly marches to his own drummer and that’s exactly why he is so loved, or hated by his constituents. One day after a particularly bad political experience he’s in the men’s bathroom licking his wounds and encounters a beautiful Elise Sellas, played by Emily Blunt, who is pretty much doing the same, hiding out. It is love at first sight for the Senator and the alluringly beautiful dancer but she runs off after begrudgingly giving him her phone number. Through a twist of fate, he gets mugged, robbed of his wallet with the phone number and that should have been the end of the story. It wasn’t. The story was just beginning.
Do you believe in fate? Should we believe in fate? The big question should be, who determines fate? About now, I could throw in a bunch of Bible verses or just about any other religious writing and they would all have something to say about their particular version of fate but this movie isn’t, mostly, about religion. It’s about life choices.
Like I said in the beginning, a thinking man’s movie.
David goes back to being an attorney while he and his loyal followers plan for his next election but he can’t forget about his encounter with, his xxxx. So, for the next three years he rides the same city bus to work scouring the streets where she might be. One day, there she is, walking down the street.
Their life trajectory will change forever because The Adjustment Bureau was supposed to stop their ever seeing each other again. The Plan behind the curtain they weren’t even supposed to know about.
The Adjustment Bureau. A mysterious group of men who wear hats, walk through doors without opening them and help God keep everyone on their pre-determined path through life. I’m not sure there is an Adjustment Bureau whose sole purpose is to keep us on that straight and narrow path but if there were and your heart was telling you something totally different, would you have the courage, the passion to take that detour? And if you did, what would your “fate”, if there is such a thing, be?
Matt Damon as David is totally believable. Emily Blunt is grace personified. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be pondering this film for a while.
If I go any further into the plot, I would certainly ruin the movie for you. As I mentioned initially, this is a thinking man’s movie. Find it, watch it! I would love to hear what you THINK.
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