USA
4*
Director:
George Nolfi
Screenwriter:
George Nolfi
Director of Photography:
John Toll
Running time: 105 minutes
This film, based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, is first-rate entertainment and right up there with Inception and Dark City, although it is less complicated than the former and less intelligent than the latter.
The important point about the film is that it is set in a very recognisable world and that this is the film’s primary world. Whatever takes place “upstairs”, where the agents of control and change reside, is shown in very short scenes, whose interiors are either completely empty, not unlike the prison in THX 1138, or they resemble the actual world, as in the library scenes. The fact that the setting is so close to our world obviously suggests that we interpret events as possibilities, and the story, despite our better judgment, as realistic, at least for the duration of the film.
Writer-director George Nolfi does a very good job of focusing and keeping our attention. In the very first sequence, he places David Norris, a young representative campaigning for the position of senator for New York, next to a vast array of famous and influential political figures: Madeleine Albright, Michael Bloomberg and Jesse Jackson are some of the faces we see. He seems to be a shoo-in, but then, as in the real world, mud is thrown in the death throes of the campaign, and this mud sticks: pictures of the senator in his college days with his pants down. The image communicated is one of immaturity, and Norris loses by a landslide.
Norris quickly rebounds, however, after meeting – and making out with – a total stranger, called Elise, in the men’s restrooms. They lose touch, but this fateful meeting inspires Norris to reconceptualise his concession speech by doing something very unpolitical: telling the truth. His brand is immediately revitalised, but he can’t get Elise out of his head.
We discover (and eventually, so will Norris) that this meeting between him and Elise was never supposed to take place, and her place in his life would infinitely decrease his ambitions and his stature in the American society. And this is the question he needs to answer by the end of the film: Does he choose Elise, even if this choice means that his political life would take a turn for the mediocre as a result?
A group of agents in grey suits and hats follow Norris around, trying to make sure that his relationship with Elise does not prevent him from reaching his potential, and they want to do this by “adjusting” his life in small ways that cause the fewest ripples to the lives of those around him. But, this being a film, we know that there will be significant ripples, not least because Norris is so determined to take on the people who tell him he can’t have Elise.
Elise, played by Emily Blunt, is perfectly fine, but the two characters seemed like they were pushed together by circumstance, i.e. the film’s screenplay, rather than by desire. They clearly make a connection, as is evidenced by that first kiss, but what the reason for this connection is, we can only guess. Their subsequent conversations do little to convince us of the authenticity of their love.
But then, stories of rebellion against powers greater than ourselves, or the people we fully empathise with, are exciting. I thought of Neo’s meeting with the Architect in Matrix: Reloaded and of John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate and the power of saying ‘no’.
The Adjustment Bureau is highly enjoyable. Nolfi is an excellent director and in spite of a relatively small cast, his film never feels like it is too small. Some questions are left unanswered, most important among them the possibility of changing “the plan” if the “Chairman” is supposed to be omniscient. But the film is light and engaging enough to sidestep such issues and will be remembered for its high concept and its great style.