Review: The Adjustment Bureau

I would like to clear up a common misconception about this film: This is not, repeat not, an action flick. Universal is trying to market it as such when, truthfully, it plays out much more like Marc Foster's Stranger Than Fiction.

Based off the short story "The Adjustment Team" by Philip K. Dick, Matt Damon is David Norris, a popular politician with a dark past, which keeps coming back to haunt him. During the night of his defeat for the New York senate seat, he meets Elise, a strange yet fascinating ballerina whom he immediately falls in love with. Sadly, there's a problem: according to "the plan" written by the big guy upstairs, they're not meant to be together and the Adjustment Bureau will stop at nothing to make sure that the plan sticks.

The performances here are wonderful. Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, and Terrace Stamp stand out as members of the Adjustment Bureau, adding a much needed flare; however, it is the two leads who steal the show. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt work well together and have a nice chemistry that made it easy for me to pull for them; I truly wanted them to be together.

The performances alone, however, are not enough to elevate The Adjustment Bureau to the level it thinks it's at. I definitely felt the strain from Writer/Director George Nolfi's attempt to stretch a short story into a feature-length film as much of the story gets bogged down in an excessive amount of romance and uninspired dialogue which, at times, threatened to lul me to sleep and the action got old after about the third chase sequence.

Thomas Newman's fantastic score does add a dark, soaring, romantic feel and this film does have an interesting story to tell with a delicate and profound moral; however, it isn't enough to raise The Adjustment Bureau to the status of classic sci-fi romance.