The Adjustment Bureau is a romance movie about a guy who discovers that there is a seedy underbelly to the world that we know: an organization is tasked to adjust people’s life events in accordance with a mysterious doctrine called The Plan. When he meets the woman of his dreams and falls in love with her in a chance encounter, he immediately questions whether or not his fate is just when it’s revealed to him that they are destined to never be together. The bureau has orders to stop him if he tries to make it work, and so begins his mission to defy the Plan and, by extension, his true destiny.
It was fun exploring the theme of fate as depicted in this film. Matt Damon isn’t doing anything particularly special (he runs a lot YAY!), but his female lead Ms. Emily Blunt is completely charming and can really light up a room. As a romance movie and by extension a “chick flick,” The Adjustment Bureau is par for the course in this respect and if you ask me, it’s comfortable.
The film is also designed to give away that warm and fuzzy feeling that maybe we ourselves can be held responsible for our own decisions, that an unseen hand does not control everything, and that maybe we can take charge of our own lives. After all, if we don’t like what’s in the Plan for us, we should have the power to change it and maybe break free from the Vice of God so we may forge our own pathway through the stars. But maybe defying The Plan is The Plan. What if this is all a big trick? My god, it’s full of lies!
ThomFiles 