The Adjustment Bureau

At first we didnt't think much of this film after having seen the trailers but I must say that it surprised us positively. It's not a masterpiece but in its genre it's worthwhile spending the 106 minutes watching this œuvre, in our opinion.

In the role as Congressman David Norris we see Matt Damon who is running a promising but not so successful campaign for the United States Senates.
He randomly (or is it actually randomly?) encounters a woman by the name of Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt), starts to talk to her, finally kissing her and thereby becoming extremely inspired and 'strong' (like Popeye and his spinach!?) in his conviction, delivering a speech making him a favourite for the 2010 Senate elections.
Now follows a row of events that finally leads to David finding his campaign manager, Charlie Traynor (Michael Kelly) 'frozen in time' and examined by men in similar suits, unfamiliar to David.
He tries to flee but they catch him, taking him to a warehouse where he meets a man called Richardson (John Slattery).
The latter explains that they are working for something called 'The Adjustment Bureau', an 'institution' ensuring that people's lives proceed according to what he calls "the plan".
This plan is being explained in a complex document, always in motion as it predicts what will happen to each and every member in the society.
In this case, David's encounter with Elise has actually 'disturbed' "the plan" and therefore Richardson urge David to forget her and go on living as he had never met her. Richardson also burns the paper where David noted her phone number. If David does not follow this advice, he might be "reset", meaning a sort of lobotomy.
Life goes on but after three years David finally meets Elise again and now a chase begin, where David tries to revolt against the will of 'The Bureau' to "control his choices".
On the same time 'The Bureau' finds out that Elise and David actually was ment to be in another, earlier version of 'The Plan'. This might indicate that this overall plan is not perfect after all.
Norris also gets to meet a 'higher' representative of 'The Bureau', called Thompson (Terence Stamp, this time not Priscilla!).
Norris argues that he thinks he has the right to choose his path in life but Thompson argues that they have let humans make their own choices but this has always lead to disaster. He uses some historic examples, displaying his reasoning.
He also tells Norris that if he wants to pursue his relationship with Elise, he either have to give up his campaign or destroy her career as a dancer.
Later on in the film Norris and Elise are being helped by a member of 'The Bureau' who shows them how to get around easily by using doors that connects to other places in the town or elsewhere. This in order to help the two lovers stay together and also investigate if 'The Plan' is waterproof or not.

We will not tell how it ends but I think it's a very well realized film, taking us into the realm of philosophical questions about our free will, about God or any other cosmic power(s) that might rule the human life on Earth.
I found it much more interesting than 'Inception' even though the scores on IMDb says otherwise but who cares about IMDb when it comes to ratings?
Do we have a free will and if we have a free will, is this something predetermined anyway?
I strongly believe in the free will and oppose all kinds of predestinationist reasoning, in the respect that we always FEEL ourselves having different options in life. Even during extreme conditions there are choices even though they might be limited. If someone tells me to kill someone else, otherwise I will be killed myself, I still have the choice to either kill, being killed or try to flee or fight.
There are no single situation in life where we are forced to do either this or that. Some might say that mental illness reduces our ability to choose between this or that but still noone has succeeded in proving that people with psychiatric problems are unable to choose.
However, when making our decisions, are they free in the sense that it's actually me making this decision or are there anyone else, a mighty cosmic power actually implanting this decision in my mind?
The important thing is though that we feel that we have different options and whether or not these options are chosen freely in a metaphysical perspective, is something we will never know.
In this film the men from 'The Adjustment Bureau' might be seen as angels, fallen angels or representatives from a higher civilisation in the Universe, being in charge of our Earthly lives.
They could also bee seen as men representing the government, having developed a sophisticated way to control our lives.

A modern dystopian vision of the world, where important epistemological questions are raised within the framework of a thriller. Not bad at all.







(Photo poster copied from: http://www.realbollywood.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/The-Adjustment-Bureau.jpg)
(Photo men in grey suites from 'The Adjustment Bureau' copied from: http://www.theadjustmentbureau.com/splash/images/gallery/img4.jpg)