DVD Review: The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau
[DVD Adjustment]

This is a story of Fate vs Free Will, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt.

David Norris (Damon) is running for a Senate seat for the state of New York when he has a chance meeting with a ballet dancer, Elise Sellas (Blunt). They begin to fall in love during that initial meeting, then, due to circumstances, are forced to go their own way. David only has her first name and cannot locate her.

Three years later a mysterious man (John Slattery) in a suit reminds another man in a suit (Anthony Mackie) that he’s to ensure that David spills coffee on his tie no later than 7:05 a.m. The second man doses off and is late in this task, and David accidentally meets Elise for a second time on the bus. They continue to encounter people who try to prevent their meeting. Terence Stamp plays the man you love to hate.

Fate has plans for our two main characters, which does not include them being together, but separately they reach the pinnacle of their careers. Do you fight Fate, can you fight Fate, if so, how do you go about it? Fate makes an impassioned explanation, which makes a lot of sense, for their continued interference.

There’s an exciting segment near the end as David has been shown by a sympathetic Fate how to move between locations. Watch the bonus features to learn how intricately the director had to film those moves to make it all work.

This 2011 film is based on the short story “The Adjustment Team” by Philip K. Dick, in the anthology collection “We Can Remember it for you Wholesale,” (and others) available at Lincoln City Libraries in the Fiction area under “Dick.” At only 106 minutes running time the film pulls you in to the story and moves along quickly as you try to figure out how this all is going to end.

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official The Adjustment Bureau web site ]

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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