THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU
USA
2011
104 minutes
A New York senatorial candidate falls in love with a dancer he meets by accident, but discovers that their love is not part of the pre-ordained plan his life has to follow...
The latest bowdlerization of a story by visionary sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, Ocean's Twelve and The Bourne Ultimatum screenwriter George Nolfi's directorial debut is a smart, nifty throwback to 1950s B-movies, resembling nothing so much as a Hollywood gloss on Alex Proyas' masterful Dark City.
Brooklyn politician David Norris (a solid Matt Damon) is unwittingly exposed to the existence of the Adjustment Bureau, a supernatural society devoted to ensuring that humans follow a masterplan predetermined by the Chairman. Feel free to read it as a religious allegory – the trick of Nolfi's movie is to make sure the mystery angle can be read any way you'd care to, while focusing the engine on the romance between perfectly-matched Damon and Emily Blunt, as the free-spirited ballerina whose love-at-first-sight meet-cute in a hotel bathroom throws a wrench into the best laid plans and forces the Bureau to work overtime to undo it.
Dick fans should know better by now not to come to The Adjustment Bureau in search of the writer's hallucinatory worldview; the movie is essentially a love-conquers-all romance in metaphysical trappings, but an enjoyable, unpretentious one, smartly playing to its strengths and weaknesses. It raises enough questions about fate vs free will to make sure what looks like an undemanding night out at the multiplex is in fact more satisfying than the average zero-calorie blockbuster.
© 2011 Jorge Mourinha. all rights reserved by the author
Starring Matt Damon; Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Michael Kelly; and Terence Stamp.
Directed by George Nolfi; produced by Michael Hackett, mr. Nolfi, Bill Carraro, Chris Moore; screenplay by mr. Nolfi, based on the short story by Philip K. Dick, Adjustment Team; music by Thomas Newman; director of photography (Technicolor), John Toll; production designer, Kevin Thompson; costume designer, Kasia Wasicka Maimone; film editor, Jay Rabinowitz; visual effects supervisor, Mark Russell.
A Universal Pictures/Media Rights Capital presentation of a Gambit Pictures production in association with Electric Shepherd Productions. (US distributor and world sales, Universal Pictures.)
Screened: distributor advance press screening, Zon Lusomundo screening room (Lisbon), March 2nd 2011.
2011
104 minutes
A New York senatorial candidate falls in love with a dancer he meets by accident, but discovers that their love is not part of the pre-ordained plan his life has to follow...
The latest bowdlerization of a story by visionary sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, Ocean's Twelve and The Bourne Ultimatum screenwriter George Nolfi's directorial debut is a smart, nifty throwback to 1950s B-movies, resembling nothing so much as a Hollywood gloss on Alex Proyas' masterful Dark City.
Brooklyn politician David Norris (a solid Matt Damon) is unwittingly exposed to the existence of the Adjustment Bureau, a supernatural society devoted to ensuring that humans follow a masterplan predetermined by the Chairman. Feel free to read it as a religious allegory – the trick of Nolfi's movie is to make sure the mystery angle can be read any way you'd care to, while focusing the engine on the romance between perfectly-matched Damon and Emily Blunt, as the free-spirited ballerina whose love-at-first-sight meet-cute in a hotel bathroom throws a wrench into the best laid plans and forces the Bureau to work overtime to undo it.
Dick fans should know better by now not to come to The Adjustment Bureau in search of the writer's hallucinatory worldview; the movie is essentially a love-conquers-all romance in metaphysical trappings, but an enjoyable, unpretentious one, smartly playing to its strengths and weaknesses. It raises enough questions about fate vs free will to make sure what looks like an undemanding night out at the multiplex is in fact more satisfying than the average zero-calorie blockbuster.
© 2011 Jorge Mourinha. all rights reserved by the author
Starring Matt Damon; Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Michael Kelly; and Terence Stamp.
Directed by George Nolfi; produced by Michael Hackett, mr. Nolfi, Bill Carraro, Chris Moore; screenplay by mr. Nolfi, based on the short story by Philip K. Dick, Adjustment Team; music by Thomas Newman; director of photography (Technicolor), John Toll; production designer, Kevin Thompson; costume designer, Kasia Wasicka Maimone; film editor, Jay Rabinowitz; visual effects supervisor, Mark Russell.
A Universal Pictures/Media Rights Capital presentation of a Gambit Pictures production in association with Electric Shepherd Productions. (US distributor and world sales, Universal Pictures.)
Screened: distributor advance press screening, Zon Lusomundo screening room (Lisbon), March 2nd 2011.
Comments