The Adjustment Bureau - 1st October 2013

Tuesday Night is Film Night rolls into October with;

The Adjustment Bureau

Oh lordy lordy! Where to start with this film? I'm not sure that any dalliances here to provide a detailed synopsis, or even a basic one will do this story justice. It's totally out of left field and is one of those weird fantasy fiction films, with it's feet firmly planted in reality, that you can never be sure if you love it, hate it, or just tolerate its reverie.

OK, let me give the normal spiel about the origin and plot-line of the film; The Adjustment Bureau is based upon the short story by Philip K. Dick (Adjustment Team) which introduces us to David Norris, played by Matt Damon, who is a young New York congressman running for Senate. However a few twists in his campaign trail lead him to lose out to his rival, but are these twists; life dealing David a bad hand, fate or some other forces at play?

At this point, we meet the love interest in this fantasy, romantic, thriller; Elise Sellas played by the delightful Emily Blunt. David clearly falls head over heels in love with Elise, with a "love at first sight" moment, but again is this chance meeting fate or a chance to adjust the destiny of these two characters?

It transpires that it is the latter. We learn this, when an "adjustment" fails to occur and the "plan" for David Norris is again twisted by true fate, rather than planned adjustment.

Confused? I thought you would be, but stick with it. Although in reality it would be better to watch the film and see for yourself what I am struggling to put into words!

Anyway, after an adjustment failure, it is deemed necessary for David to meet the Adjustment Bureau who turn out to be an agency working for The Chairman. Now, the film leaves you to make your own mind up who The Chairman is, some may draw the conclusion that he / she is God and the Adjustment Agents are angels, that is certainly alluded to, but in fairness to the screenwriters this is not confirmed and you can judge for yourself. The point being; this is the fantasy part of this thriller, where this agency is tasked with continually making adjustments to the lives of the mere mortals of earth, to ensure that they continue down the path that was destined for them. Some deviation is allowed for some decisions that are made, but these do not include what route one's life takes or what doors may open for you. And it is pertinent to note the mention doors there, as the Bureau's agents travel through doors to stay one step ahead of their assigned cases. The doors are normal doors, but their exits are not where one would expect them to be, i.e you can enter a door in one location, but you exit in another. Oh and you will need a hat!

Even more confused?

Yes, all the Bureau's agents wear hats, it's the way that The Chairman limits movement for them! I did say you need to watch the film to understand.

Back to the plot. So, David Norris the up and coming politician has his route to the White House planned. This is the path his life should lead. However, a second chance meeting with Elise, after the failed adjustment, changes this and this is when he learns of the Adjustment Bureau. They tell him all about their plans for his plan and he needs to maintain this secret for fear of being erased. However Norris being the tough cookie as he is, he is not going to take this lying down and thus begins the search for Elise despite of the Bureau's warnings.

There is a lot more to the film than the above, but this should give you some idea of the story and it isn't as absurd as it may sound. At first we did start to wonder what we had left ourselves in for, but it was well worth sticking with, as the fantasy story-line was underpinned with a firm grounding in reality and if you can accept that life will always take twists and turns based on fate, then perhaps you can allow a little credence to a creative and original tale of life adjustments made by men wearing hats.

It's difficult to pigeon hole The Adjustment Bureau into any one genre. It was certainly a thriller, as there were moments that made us gasp with surprise, but it was also a feelgood movie, as although the adjustments were meant to keep Elise and David apart, his sheer determination had to win out and for all that commitment it was clearly a romance as well.

So hopefully this will have intrigued you enough to perhaps seek the film out and make you own mind up, we certainly enjoyed it. As for the all important TNiFN rating...............

At this point, I feel I need to raise the issue of the scores, we normally have 3 scores, which are a value out of 10 and then an average is taken. Some say that averaging may bias the scores, thus not reflecting a true value. Perhaps we should score a total out of 30. I'm not so sure, but I take on board the suggestion. So this week I am going to take the total score and produce a percentage result, thus providing a rating based on the scores which would not matter on the numbers of viewers scoring, whilst still adding a higher degree of granularity above and beyond that of a mark out of 10.

Has the rating system confused you more than tonight's film?

TNiFN Rating 73%