Fooshoeguy
02-24-11, 02:22 AM
I had an opportunity to see a pre-screening of The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. If you like films that grapple with philosophical ideas like free will and fate, you might enjoy this film. It's a story about a candidate for the U.S. Senate, played by Damon, whose love for a woman he randomly meets (Blunt) is thwarted by men in long coats and hats, 1920s style G men who are enforcers for the Adjustment Bureau. The bureau cannot allow Damon and Blunt to strike up a love relationship, because this will ruin their future, and so the adjusters use their magical powers to enforce the cosmic plan of the "Chairman". Hence, we have the conflict of Damon's choices making things quite difficult for these comical figures; suffice it to say the film doesn't ever resolve the problem of whether or not we can be free in a world governed by a cosmic plan, but it does make for some suspenseful moments as Damon and eventually Blunt together try to forge their own authentic destiny. Don't expect any deep or moving analysis of the problem of free will and fate since this film is mostly faux philosophy. In fact, you have to check your critical questions at the door of the theater, because it's a kind of light philosophical fantasy full of implausible props and constructs that would fall apart if one took it too seriously. But if you enjoy being teased with psuedo-philosophical fare, a movie night out with a companion can be rewarded with some interesting conversation afterward. Even if you don't care about the intellectual overlay, the story itself may have enough intrigue to keep you wondering to the end if Damon will be able to find happiness in a world where fate seems to conspire against him.