Monday Morning Movie Reviewer: The Adjustment Bureau, Best Movie of 2011…So Far

So there I was ready to slam this movie. I already had the headline (Adjustment Bureau…adjust your expectations), but then it surprised me by being good almost from the first five minutes. Then it surprised me by being really good.

Now saying this movie is the best I’ve seen this year is a bit of a back handed compliment (I have also seen Gnomeo & Juliet and Big Momma’s House 3) and it isn’t a perfect or great movie. It’s just a really smart film that bristles with intelligence in nearly every scene and has something I’ve never seen before for a plot device.

The Bureau in the title of the film is made up of celestial beings that adjust and control most portions of your life or steer you towards something in big, pivotal moments. The movie doesn’t say exactly who they are or what they are (could be aliens) but it seems to suggest they’re angels and the top manager they call the “chairman” is actually God. I know I’ve never exactly seen heaven and angels portrayed as a giant bureaucracy steering humans toward great moments by forcing small events—they might cause you to spill your coffee so you miss a bus—that have large ripple effects.

As the movie goes on it’s like a romantic version of The Matrix where Matt Damon’s politician has to keep finding ways to be with Emily Blunt’s ballerina even though the Bureau is determined to keep them apart. The movie is clever in that it hooks you with this bureaucracy version of angels (they are only allowed a certain number of ripple effects before having to seek approval for more by management) but gets you emotionally invested in the mature, smart relationship developing between Damon and Blunt.

What Works: The casting works (Mad Men’s John Slattery is a supporting standout as a wily member of the bureau), the romance works (Blunt is impulsively sexy and Damon has some of the same quiet cunning trying to get around the Bureau that made him a star in Good Will Hunting), and the plot will have you wondering about small moments the next time you “accidentally” run late or drop your keys.

What Doesn’t: The ending is a little convenient and unrealistic. The movie had such a grounded reality running through the core of it, having a chase and the final scene feels a little like a copout. However, I know that if it didn’t end that way and had ended a few scenes earlier, repeat business wouldn’t be good.

What I Would Have Done Different: It’s hard to think of much. I probably would have ended the movie a few scenes before it does end, or at least made the ending a little less…[can’t say much more without spoiling]…but I also know that most of the audience wouldn’t really enjoy that, and they might not recommend this otherwise very good movie. So maybe there’s nothing I would have changed. Maybe I should just trust the Bureau works beyond my understanding.