“The Adjustment Bureau” can be praised as an action movie and as an imaginative fantasy, but the main thing that keeps audiences glued throughout its running time is that it’s a love story, easily one of the best American love stories of the past year.
In retrospect, it almost feels like a miracle: “The Adjustment Bureau” gets an audience caring intently and personally whether two people will get together, and it does this with a single five-minute conversation.
A failed senatorial candidate, rehearsing his concession speech, meets a woman and they talk. Their ease, their immediate interest, their amusement and instantaneous delight in each other’s company, are so apparent that we know we’re witnessing one of those things. That is, the kind of connection that happens just once or twice in a lifetime.
A number of elements come together in that brief, early scene. First, the script — not just the events of the story, but the back- and-forth dialogue — is superior throughout the film, not least in these moments. Also, director George Nolfi, who wrote the screenplay (adapted from a Philip K. Dick story), had the good sense to trust his words and slow the pace so that the encounter stands out as a precious oasis from activity.
Finally, the actors, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, either worked on or discovered a singular rapport, so that everything they say seems fresh and spontaneous, arrived at on the spot.
“The Adjustment Bureau” deals with the subject of fate. There is a master plan, and walking the earth are divine agents whose job is to nudge events in the right direction, usually in quiet and unforced ways.
But every so often, something happens accidentally that is destined to alter the script, and when that occurs, a major adjustment is called for. An example of this is when David (Damon) and Elise (Blunt) run into each other a second time. Apparently, if events run their course, that is going to be enough to alter world history, and so everything must be done to keep them from kissing and becoming a couple.
When the protagonist discovers the existence of the Adjustment Bureau, he discovers a world in which the laws of time and space don’t quite apply, in which an interior door might lead to a baseball stadium and another might open up onto Liberty Island. The movie’s ideas about destiny amount to more than an excuse for high-ticket visuals — which is why this is, for example, a better film than “Inception.”
Because life would be easy for David if he only were to accept a fate that doesn’t include Elise, it’s crucial that the movie keep that from seeming like the smartest option. The director prevents this by making sure that every time Damon and Blunt are together, the interaction is so radiant, the intimacy so genuine and escalated, that we feel relieved to see them. Just a scene of the two of them walking down a street talking has a certain magic about it.
Blunt, who has heretofore seemed chilly, is not the first actress I’d have thought of for this role, but her acerbic irreverence makes a nice foil for Damon’s earnestness and brings his smile out of hiding.
Along the way, as befitting a Philip K. Dick adaptation, the movie has things to say about courage, fate and the moral structure of the universe, though to talk in specifics would kill too many surprises.
These issues, though, are what people will be discussing all the way home from the theater.
“the adjustment bureau” (*** 1/2, love in action)
PG for brief strong language, some sexuality and a violent image. 1 hour, 39 minutes. Written and directed by George Nolfi; from the short story “Adjustment Team” by Philip K. Dick; photography by John Toll; starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Michael Kelly and Terence Stamp. Opens today at area theaters.
