The Adjustment Bureau

Name: The Adjustment Bureau
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller, Romance
Released: March 4, 2011
Duration: 99 min
Rating: 60
Cast: Emily Blunt, Matt Damon

2011

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Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 479 Ratings

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7.1	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 479 Ratings

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The Adjustment Bureau

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Movie Details & Credits

Universal Pictures | Release Date: March 4, 2011 | PG-13

Starring: Emily Blunt, Matt Damon

Summary: On the brink of winning a seat in the U.S. Senate, ambitious politician David Norris meets beautiful contemporary ballet dancer Elise Sellas--a woman like none he's ever known. But just as he realizes he's falling for her, mysterious men conspire to keep the two apart. (Universal Pictures)

Director: George Nolfi

Genre(s): Sci-Fi, Thriller, Romance

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 99 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Calvin Wilson

Mar 4, 2011

An exhilarating balancing act, at once a science-fiction romp, a paranoid thriller and a philosophical treatise. Read full review

Andrew O'Hehir

Mar 4, 2011

Nolfi's dialogue is lean and often funny, while Damon and Blunt play appealing and clearly delineated characters drawn together by the kind of old-fashioned romantic passion you don't often see in contemporary movies. Read full review

Shawn Levy

Mar 4, 2011

Ultimately, The Adjustment Bureau shifts from paranoid dystopia to a more hopeful tenor, and that weakens it slightly. Read full review

Roger Moore

Mar 2, 2011

This "Inception" meets "Made in Heaven" by way of "They Live" is also the screwiest movie Matt Damon has been in since, what, "Dogma?" Read full review

Richard Corliss

Mar 7, 2011

It's a clever idea that, around the mid-point, stumbles into absurdity as the movie itself makes too many lunatic choices. Read full review

Carrie Rickey

Mar 3, 2011

A movie where the action scenes feel like filler, the romantic leads have little magnetism, and, before long, its metaphysical underpinnings fall to pieces. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

Mar 2, 2011

There's a startling moment 10 or 15 minutes into The Adjustment Bureau - the only time, really, when the film achieves any level of surprise. The dispiriting dullness of this dreary misfire hasn't had time to settle in and thicken: The movie hasn't yet revealed its utter and thorough ineptitude. Read full review

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User Reviews

Shiira

Apr 7, 2011

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. In Hirozaku Kore-eda's "Wandafuru Raifu", the recently dead get to make a movie that recounts their happiest moment which will play in an endless loop for all of eternity. Heaven is a short film. But before the person makes it to this celluloidal after life, the subject must sit through pre-production meetings conducted by angels, who look about as ordinary as Harry(Anthony Mackie) does, as well as the other fedora-ed men in "The Adjustment Bureau". The interview process, in which the vignettes are collected for the subsequent shootings, are held at a sort of way station, a decrepit-looking building that resembles a social services institution, the anti-thesis of the usual iconography associated with heaven. Heaven has an indie aesthetic. Angels with harps, the pearly gates, clouds- those overused tropes are too Hollywood. "Wandafuru Raifu", in its eccentric depiction of the hereafter, stood apart from the usual religious genre fare with the truly radical idea that our creator is actually an omnipotent studio head. Heaven is art, seemingly without any ties to organized religion. The same heaven-as-bureaucracy angle is also prevalent in "The Adjustment Bureau", where heaven has an annex on Earth which looks conspicuously like an insurance company building. When David Norris(Matt Damon) discovers that the world is being micro-managed by "case workers"(read: angels), then defies their grand plans for him by his insistence on pursuing Elise(Emily Blunt), a woman he was supposed to meet just once, the men in hats "kick" the case "upstairs". The "chairman"(read: God) send down an archangel-type named Thompson(Terrence Stamp), who informs the senator hopeful that free-will doesn't exist, only the appearance of it. The men who work for the Adjustment Bureau function as architects of predestination. In the Kore-eda film, free will, likewise, turns out to be an illusion, as well, since the movie that the people are collaborating with god on requires a script. A script suggests that everything is written out ahead of time, a collection of life experiences that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. For David, his happiest memory(were he an interviewee in "Wandafuru Raifu") may very well be the moment he says, "I love you," to Elise on the rooftop, kissing his muse as if it was for the last time, so he kisses her hard, while the bureaucrats approach the couple with the intent of "resetting" their mental faculties. Prior to being trapped on the terrace overlooking New York City, the fleeting lovers, in a sense, make their own movie, as they ingress into new locales with each turn of the knob, like editors, surveying the city in the blink of an eye. Their whirlwind jaunt through the urban landscape can be construed as a metaphor for how love has its own velocity when you're with the one you love. Whipping through Yankee Stadium, Times Square, and Ellis Island, time seems to move too fast. Time just slips away. Time passes you by. If David and Elise kiss each other deeply enough, the future amnesiacs hope that perhaps some vestige of their affinity for each other will survive. Maybe they'll find each other, similar to how Joel Barish(Jim Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski(Kate Winslet) think they're meeting for the first time on that train to Montauk at the outset of Michel Gondry's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Lucky for the politician and the dancer, but unlucky for the fortunes of the film, their undying love never gets tested, because "the chairman" is a Judeo-Christian figure, whereas in the Gondry film, traces of Buddhism can be detected in the way the victimized Lacuna customers are able to recognize each other, which subtly suggests reincarnation, a concept commonly associated with eastern religions. The ending to "The Adjustment Bureau", in what is otherwise an entertaining mish-mash of reasonably sophisticated sci-fi and high romance, is sort of a cheat(or maybe not). God is perfect, right? Hypothetically, when does God ever change his mind? In Carl Reiner's "Oh, God", George Burns, playing our heavenly father, admits to making the pits in avocados too big, but he lets the imperfection remain as is. After forty years of presiding over earth under a working predestination model, now the chairman wants to give free will one more try? C'mon, now. The last time people were entrusted with free will, as previously stated earlier in the film by Thompson, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war. What if God didn't issue this edict? When Harry is summoned to the Chairman's chambers, what if the angel staged a coup, and took over the reigns of power? Maybe the Salon writer is right. Maybe Harry is the devil.… Expand

6 of 8 users found this helpful62

RyanPratt

Sep 12, 2011

Buy-it - Is Matt Damon married? Because if so, he might be having an affair with Emily Blunt. These two stars light the screen on fire and their burning chemistry is reason enough to see this film about politics, life and love and whether or not we control our own destiny.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

MovieGuys

Sep 20, 2013

Interesting concept, and pretty good execution, actually. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have some chemistry, and it shows throughout the film. Originality is definitely on the movie's side here, and the ideas and overall craftsmanship of the film are to be noted.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

sholler

Mar 9, 2011

more of a love story than a complex "inception like" thriller, but still satisfying overall and features great performances by both Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. Their chemistry alone fills the holes the convoluted plot digs as the movie progresses.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

ALF

Aug 28, 2011

An enjoyable film but I thought it had been either over-edited or there was something missing. It was like some of the story threads had been left to dry and not explored. Shame, because instead of being a great film it was average which was a shame because the lead actors were fine, just aAn enjoyable film but I thought it had been either over-edited or there was something missing. It was like some of the story threads had been left to dry and not explored. Shame, because instead of being a great film it was average which was a shame because the lead actors were fine, just a script which needed to be tweaked and tended too by the "Adjustment Bureau." With what seems like Hollywood's campaign to remake just about everything perhaps this fim will be remade better one day and explore the subject deeper.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

TVJerry

Mar 5, 2011

Matt Damon plays a New York politican who's star is rising...until he falls in love. Then, this group of men in hats sets out to "adjust" his life. What starts out promisingly (and with lots of real-life cameos) gets more and more talky with less and less suspense or action. Basically, itMatt Damon plays a New York politican who's star is rising...until he falls in love. Then, this group of men in hats sets out to "adjust" his life. What starts out promisingly (and with lots of real-life cameos) gets more and more talky with less and less suspense or action. Basically, it turns into a stupid episode of "Twilight Zone." On the positive side, the chemistry between Damon and Emily Blount makes for a strong romantic core. A real letdown.… Expand

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

AlfredLurstenan

Jul 4, 2012

Not a movie, more like a terd, with huge hollywood names slapped on it, flushed out to the sea of loving fans, who will all say how great it was to their friends.. Just like I got douped. Concept = City of Angels meets, Matrix meets, What dreams May Come with Robin Williams..(in my opinionNot a movie, more like a terd, with huge hollywood names slapped on it, flushed out to the sea of loving fans, who will all say how great it was to their friends.. Just like I got douped. Concept = City of Angels meets, Matrix meets, What dreams May Come with Robin Williams..(in my opinion the other worst movie ever made)… Expand

0 of 4 users found this helpful04

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