Late Movie Review: The Adjustment Bureau

Julie and I took advantage of a rainy weekend to get some movie watching in. We caught up with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt for The Adjustment Bureau.

I hadnt read the short story by Phillip K. Dick, but seeing the commercials and being familiar with a lot of his work I knew this was going to be hard to pull off. PKDs works are often very obtuse. I always find it very weird that Hollywood decides to make movies from his works for this reason. There is usually a hook or twist of reality that PKD explores and it often is used as a device to explore an aspect of humanity. Because the topic is generally very cerebral, it is often lost in overdoing a whiz-bang scifi style. Blame Blade Runner.

Thats why Im glad the special effectsyness of The Adjustment Bureau is so refreshingly backgrounded. Plus they wear hats.

The characters are very believable through the movie, and it helps that its set in modern day without resorting to any outrageous elements except when connected to the realm of the sneaky Adjustment Bureau. Even they have limits, which are explained in passing without too much exposition. Again, thankfully understated. The movie is more a love story than anything else and it works on that level really well.