The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

David Norris (Matt Damon), who eight years before was elected the youngest congressman in U.S. history (Democrat, Brooklyn), has just lost the 2006 general election race for the U.S. senate (Wait, 2006? What happened to Hillary?). It's election night and Norris is stealing himself up inside the men's room of a fancy Manhattan hotel, before going out to face his crowd of supporters for the inevitable concession speech. A demoralized Norris is interrupted in his pitying funk by Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt), an aspiring ballerina who is hiding in the men's room after hotel security caught her crashing a party upstairs; it is love at first sight. The quirky Stellas bucks Norris up, enough so that he goes on to delivery a well received, self-mocking, yet resolute concession speech which manages to revive his political prospects for another run in four years.

Months go by and Norris, who never even got Sella's name, has taken a job in the investment banking firm of his former campaign manager and patron Charlie Traynor (Michael Kelly). On his way to work one day he unexpectedly runs into Sellas on the bus, they both still have the hots for each other and he gets her number, things are looking up. But it is not be, for you see Harry Mitchell (Anthony Mackie), Norris's kind-of guardian angel messed up and allowed the two to meet, when such a reunion was not part of The Chairman's plan.

The Chairman you see is God and has a divine plan for Norris that doesn't include a romance with Sellas. The Chairman has a group of fedora wearing helpers, The Adjustment Bureau, who work to keep the divine plan on track, and 'adjust' any pesky instance of free will which might get in the way, Mitchell is one of their number. The Chairman has fluctuated over time between allowing his creations free will, and imposing on them pre-destination. The Chairman started out by guiding man from hunter-gather tribes up through the 4th century, and then decided we were ready to go it on our own, the result was the dark ages. So The Chairman took over again and brought us the renaissance, age of reason and industrial revolution, in 1910 he decided to give us another chance on our own. When we almost nuked the planet in the early 1960's He decided to take over again and thusly in the early 21st century our lives are thoroughly monitored and controlled by a celestial C.I.A.

Richardson (John Slattery, hardly removed from Mad Men mode in his fedora hat and nicely tailored suit) is spotted by Norris in the act of adjusting his boss (so that he will favor Norris's recent proposal to invest in a company that makes solar panels), when he arrives at work too early (Mitchell was suppose to delay him with spilled coffee). Slattery and his men chase Norris, they catch, come clean as The Adjustment Bureau, and threaten to lobotomize him (plan or no plan) if he ever revels their existence or goes off plan again. In no uncertain terms they tell him not to pursue Sellas, and they destroy the card with her number on it.

Mitchell, who has watched Norris his whole life, silently seen him through the death of hi parents, reckless school days, and the up and downs of a political career, has grown attached to the guy and decides to break the rules and go speak with him. Water seems to dampen (pun) the AB's ability to monitor there subjects, so Harris lures Norris to the city pier and spills the beans. It turns out in an earlier version of 'The Plan'  Norris and Sallas were suppose to get together, but if that happens it will derail the Almighty's plan to make Norris a (presumably historically important) President of the United States. Norris chooses love over power and sets out with Harris on a crazy plan to force a meeting with The Chairmen so he can plead his case; however Richardson has been replaced on the Norris case by the notorious (to The Adjustment Bureau) Thompson (Terence Stamp), who is determined to get Norris in the White House no matter what the cost.

Billed as a thriller this is really more of fantasy romance, with Damon and Blunt cast as lovers whose bond is so strong that not even God can keep them apart. It is too bad that their is really nothing too electric about the couples chemistry, I mean they work well together but I don't know if I buy them as the kind of fated lovers this movie demands. Based on a short story but that fount of movie material Philip K. Dick, the concept is intriguing in a Twilight Zone kind of way (in fact I remember an episode of The New Twilight Zone back in the 1980's that this movie kind of reminds me of). It's good, but never achieves the kind of intensity I wanted from it, while swinging awkwardly between understated romance and chase scenes. A better movie in conception then execution The Adjustment Bureau still makes for a good 99 minutes of mixed genera fun.

Good