The Adjustment Bureau: The choice is yours (maybe!)

Politician David Norris is on the brink of winning a seat in the U.S. Congress when he has a chance encounter with a beautiful ballerina named Elise. As David begins to fall for her he realizes that there is a group - The Adjustment Bureau - who will do everything in their considerable power to keep them apart.

While The Adjustment Bureau attempted to mirror the “Bourne” films which Matt Damon starred in, it lacked the dynamic action and comprehensiveness in story/plot that made those movies modern action classics. This is not to say that it was not a good film, Damon was certainly convincing in his role as David Norris and he shared excellent chemistry with Emily Blunt’s Elise Sellas. That chemistry was important if the audience was to buy into their characters and the struggles they went through to fight against “the plan” that the evil (or maybe not, guess it’s how one views the film as a whole) Bureau had for them. The plot for the film (it was based upon a short story by Philip K. Dick) presented quite an interesting twist for a sci-fi action story as it made the audience ponder if humans can choose their own fate or if everything was predetermined in their lives. It's rare for the audience to have to think at the multi-plex nowadays, so this thought provoking story was a nice surpise. Writer/Director George Nolfi did his best to not only keep the audience engaged in the complexity presented with the story but also ratcheted up the tension and blended in some (but not enough) action while at the same time building the bond between David and Elise, however he neglected to give the fedora wearing members of the Bureau any depth and left many things regarding their role in the universe of the film unexplained.

Ultimately The Adjustment Bureau provided the audience a change in pace with its provocative story but lacked the action to make it a memorable sci-fi thriller.

Grade: C+