26 April 2011

Adjustment Bureau (2011)

Way to be heavy handed guys. Early on in Adjustment Bureau, Matt Damon asks his assigned watcher if he's an angel. "Um, not really, more like a case worker." Eventually the men behind the scenes are revealed to be doing the Designer/Architect/Chairman/God's work. Okay, we get it. It's a parable. Or an allegory. Whatever.

In short it's a Matrix without any of the philosophy or action. The film is about free will, the power of destiny, the even greater power of true love, and the idea that little mistakes in our lives are quickly corrected to set us back on the right path. The only respect I have for the movie is that it's based on a story by Philip K. Dick -- writer of stuff like Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly.

Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and John Slattery are pretty likeable leads but the script doesn't give them much to work with. Oh and Terence Stamp's character is nicknamed "The Hammer" for the unsentimental use of his powers but he basically turns out to be just a passive aggressive bully. The movie could have been so much better but it's kind of silly and ridiculous. And obvious.