‘Your future has been adjusted’ is the tagline that caught my attention towards this movie, released on March this year. Called as ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ and starred Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and some other supporting casts, it is a romantic science fiction thriller film about a man glimpses the future Fate has planned for him but decided for something else after he met with a girl on downtown New York City. By turning against the plan for him, he had to encounter many obstacles set ahead of him and even have to face the truth that his intention would kill not only his dream as the Senate for New York but also his lover’s ambition in becoming a professional ballet dancer too.
The storyline of the film had roughly allocated 50 percent for the science fiction aspect while another half for the romance love story between the main characters. From this statistic, the film appears to be in balance and in a safe mode, without going too much on one-sided theme. However, I prefer the film would goes more to the science fiction aspect (like 70 percent) which would put it much more as an exciting thriller film rather than a boring romance film. Luckily, this movie isn’t bad in handling the romance side of the story which is still acceptable and forms part and parcel of the story’s development.
The performance by the casts is good and neat, with the people responsible in adjusting things back to plan acting as people lacking in emotion but still have feeling and are just doing their job, while the main character, David Norris portrayed by Matt Damon nailed the acting task. The frame of the story is also quite fresh and brilliantly presented throughout the film.
I like some of the ideas which are cleverly presented throughout the film, like the crossing to another place after going through door by rotating the doorknob clockwise and wearing a hat, adjusting something on spot with a move of the hand (something like a magician), the fact that adjusting too many things would cause ripple effects that is hard to be covered up, the book that shows the stimulation of a plan allocated for a person with his or her way ahead as figured, etc. If you haven’t watch this film, you might not understand what I’m writing on this paragraph…it’s all on the science fiction ideas from this film which is quite interesting and these are what makes me to have a good impression on the movie.
However, if you compare this to other movies of similar type like ‘Source Code’ or ‘Inception’, ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ failed to get on par with them, mainly due to the movie being created in a very safe and steady mode with no intense or unforgettable scenes that leaved the audiences with a deep memory towards the film. There are very few exciting moments like those chasing scenes which should be prolonged or enhanced. A distinctive film out from the others is a film that evokes audiences’ emotion and made us think. This film made me think too, but a bit only without evoking my emotion. Are they really unseen forces that have already planned our future, or is there existence of fate? Anyway, the movie still worked out well and is worth-watching, and out of 10 points, I would gave this film 7.3.
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