The Adjustment Bureau (2011, PG-13)

Rating: ***

I liked the premise of the Adjustment Bureau.  I liked the acting.  I liked the characters.  The direction isn’t horrible, though there is always room for improvement.  But I just wanted it to reach out farther—I wanted it to expand more.  I wanted it to be a greater movie then what it was.  This is one of those movies that are good, but you constantly have the nagging feeling that it could have been great.   

            Matt Damon stars as US campaigning Senator David Norris.  Norris is on the verge of winning the people over, but his popularity then rapidly declines after a few iffy pictures of him appears in tabloids and newspapers.  His opponent wins by a landslide.  He goes to the bathroom to rehearse his concession speech alone, but an English woman named Elise (Emily Blunt) pops out of the stall. They talk a little and are immediately attracted to each other, but then he leaves to gives his speech, which receives praise. 

            On his way to a new job, Norris, after meeting up with Elise again on the bus, enters his building to discover everyone still and motionless.  Mysterious men then apprehend Norris and knock him out.  He wakes up in a large warehouse, where they tell him they have a plan for him, as they do with everyone else that was created by ‘the Chairman’.  They warn him not to ever meet up with Elise again, or to tell anyone about him, cause if he does, his mind will be ‘reset’, which is strongly implied to be a bad thing.  Eventually, after three years, Norris does meet up with Elise again, prompting the men to return.  Norris goes up against them, prompting a chase throughout the streets of New York, while the men repeatedly try to break him and Elise apart. 

This isn’t Damon’s most electrifying role by any means, but he is still a good actor, and fast becoming one of the better actors in Hollywood.  The movie is directed by George Nolfi in his first direction project (he does a passable job).  I think he has the potential to becoming a good director.      

Ultimately, the Adjustment Bureau ends up being an interesting popcorn flick.  It raises a few questions for us, but I constantly felt like this was an underwhelming film—not because it was a bad movie (it was reasonably entertaining), but because it could have been so much more.