Review of The Adjustment Bureau (2011) by Andrey B — 05 Jul 2018

Strengths: The concept behind this movie is flat out great. The idea that our world is mostly controlled by a secret group of people is one of the more interesting routes a film can take. Matt Damon (David Norris) does a good job as the lead, and his chemistry with Emily Blunt (Elise Sellas) was one of the best parts of the whole movie. Their scenes together, even when not tied into the sci-fi aspect of everything, were a joy to watch. Anthony Mackie (Harry Mitchell) was also strong as a man torn between what is right and what his job entails. I appreciated how the film was kind of perfectly broken up into three acts with the time shits throughout. The story is thought-provoking, and even has a clear message laid out in the end. A film like this also benefitted from an ending that made sense. Too often I see sci-fi flicks wrap things up in nonsensical ways. That wasn't the case here.

Weaknesses: They could've pushed the envelope further. Playing things as mostly a love story made for good character stuff, but kept the grand scheme of things limited from a sci-fi perspective. It's kind of a shame, because there were a lot of routes you could've gone with this. They played it safe. John Slattery (Richardson) is usually very good, but didn't do much in this one. His character is more of a plot device than anything and it shows in his performance. There's just not anything there. There's also Terrence Stamp (Thompson), who is kind of just there to look menacing and have the same face he has in most movies.

Overall: This is a good movie that had potential to be great. It just didn't take enough risks. Choosing to focus on a love story allowed for Damon and Blunt to work well together, but hurt other aspects of the movie.