“Gimmicky Love Story”

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in a love story set in a modern world of fantasy which argues that the fate of the world is predetermined by a group of men all wearing dark suits and hats.

However, when you learn that the film is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, that premise doesn’t seem so unreasonable.

And then when an important person in the plan doesn’t want to follow his predetermined destiny, what happens to the plan and the people pulling his strings?

When we first meet those men in suits and hats, Richardson, the team leader played by John Slattery, says to the team, “Everybody needs a vacation. Even us.”

The Adjustment Bureau MovieThe immediate object of their adjustment work is David Norris, a charismatic young man running for senator of New York. However, when something embarrassing from his past is revealed, he loses the election.

Then when he believes that he is alone in the men’s room and is rehearsing his concession speech, a beautiful young woman named Elise comes out of one of the stalls, where she had been hiding from security for having crashed a wedding in the hotel.

They talk. They bond. They kiss.

And then they part, and all David has is her first name.

Then years later, they accidentally meet on a bus when David is going to work for a big corporation. This time Elise writes her phone number on a card for him, but again forces intervene, and they have to part suddenly.

However, when David gets to the offices where he works, he sees something that he wasn’t supposed to see, and the Adjustment team has to intervene. They take him aside, explain what is going on, and Richardson takes the card with Elise’s number on it.

You see, the fate of the world has already been planned, and it will be screwed up if David and Elise get together. Therefore, the Adjustment team has to keep them apart by interfering with any circumstances that would allow them to get together, because they would fall in love and ruin the Adjustment team’s plans.

But now David doesn’t want to play by the rules and live according to plan anymore.

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU has an interesting concept, but is basically a gimmicky love story.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”