The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

Plot: David (Matt Damon) is a politician who meets Elise (Emily Blunt), a ballerina and instantly falls for her. David is taken by the Adjustment Bureau, who tell him that their job is to make sure that people's lives go according to "the plan" and is warned if he talks about them, his life will be reset and he'll never see Elise again. The film sees David fighting the Bureau in order to be with Elise. Will he succeed?

Review: I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed the film.

Firstly, I really like the plot and the story itself. I thought it was a unique spin on romance. A story about a higher power trying to keep a couple apart. Typically, in romance movies, you hear the characters saying or implying that a higher got them together. In this, they're trying to keep them apart. I liked the twists in the movie because it kept things interesting. There are some cliches, especially the ending which I predicted half way through the movie. Nonetheless, it still manages to work beautifully.

The acting is top notch. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt are terrific individually and together. I also think they had good chemistry between the two of them. In order to make this kind of film work, especially because it's a romance, you have to have that spark to make it all fit together. They have it. Then we have those from the Bureau. Anthony Mackie plays Harry Mitchell and I think his character is very interesting and is the audience's voice. He's the one that saying how we feel about the entire situation. Terence Stamp plays Thompson and I found him to be convincingly creepy in his role. He's an excellent antagonist. John Slattery plays Richardson and I thought he was great. The entire crew is talented. The cast itself is very small so there's a feeling of intimacy. You can feel the tension and all of the emotions because there are very few people in it so the emotional stances of the film aren't all over the place.

The film itself is actually about the characters. It's about David and Elise and their fate. That's the theme of the film I really loved. It's who decides your fate and how your life will go. Is it up to you? Is your fate decided for you and you have to follow that plan? Or can you decide your own path? Do you have any free will, the ability to make a choice? These are the questions that are addressed. These are the questions that David asks himself. He follows the path for a while but then decides to make his own road to life. Not have it chosen for him. The questions that I wrote earlier are not only brought up in the love story between David and Elise but also in their personal lives as well. So this topic is brought up in numerous aspects of the film's plot and characters and it's done so very thoughtfully.

The Adjustment Bureau is a suspenseful and terrific thriller.

Rating: 4/5