The main thing that separates The Adjustment Bureau from its sci-fi peers is that this takes place in a world that is immediately established as real and normal accomplished effectively by featuring real-life media figures and publications. The Adjustment Bureau`s Achilles heel is really its look. There are several cool and iconic images, but the bowler-hat-wearing mystery men seem all too familiar from other movies.
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But then, a huge part of the movie`s success is the way it handles the characters of the Adjustment Bureau agents. We are used to seeing steely MIB-types who are everywhere; who can and will do anything. The Bureau agents here, however, are depicted as mostly regular salary guys who have to deal with office responsibilities and who need to take holidays too.
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The performances are solid across the board. Damon, Blunt, Terrence Stamp and Anthony Mackie are all good actors Damon especially roots the far-fetched narrative with his relatable everyman charm.
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The movie`s main problem is that it boasts a strong story, very competent writing and intriguing characters, but lacks in the style department.
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However, director Nolfi deserves credit for taking a fantastical, genre-bending paranoid conspiracy thriller and making it extremely relatable to audiences. Nolfi, armed with a Ph.D in political science, demonstrates his remarkable aptitude for writing a politician character and arming him with rhetoric-filled speeches and an adoring public.
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Ultimately, it`s a crying shame that The Adjustment Bureau can and will come across to many as run-of-the-mill, boring and forgettable, if mildly interesting. This is a movie that boasts formidable acting talent and a masterful adaptation of a classic short story written by a literary legend and in the end, it feels like it doesn`t work mainly because the mysterious agents look exactly the same as every one of that kind before. Our advice is to adjust your expectations and enjoy the ride.
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Substance triumphs over style and clever screenwriting and great actors make for an entertaining guessing game of a movie. It`s not the best P-K-D adaptation, but it is good.
3.5 stars Jedd Jong