One of the oldest questions that religion and philosophy have struggled with is: How much, if any, free will do we have? Are our paths already determined for us, or is every choice we make our own? Even the most religious among us today believes that we have some control over our own lives–after all, how can you attain salvation if you can’t choose to be damned?
“The Adjustment Bureau” challenges that idea in a clever, fast-paced film that makes you think. Matt Damon plays David Norris, a rough-and-tumble New York congressman who is running for senate at the opening of the film. He is being watched and followed–by whom we are unsure, but “they” are keeping tabs on him. As it turns out, Norris is a little too rough around the edges and some incriminating college photos are leaked, costing him the election. When he heads into the men’s room of his hotel to practice his concession speech, he discovers Elise (Emily Blunt) hiding there. They talk and share a kiss before she runs off, presumably never to be seen again.
He gives an earnest and humorous concession speech, inspired by this woman, and moves on with his life, taking a job at a friend’s investment firm. He soon bumps into Elise again on the bus on his way to work, and this time he gets her phone number.
As it turns out, he was never supposed to meet her again. When he walks into the conference room at his office he discovers all of his coworkers frozen in mid-action, and a group of fedora-wearing men doing something to them. Norris, of course, runs away as quickly as he can, but is quickly captured.
He is introduced to the adjustment bureau by Richardson (“Mad Men”‘s John Slattery), who is handling his case. It turns out that we have less freedom than we think we do. Sure, we can decide what we want to have for lunch, but when it comes to the broad strokes of our lives “The Plan” is what really counts. If someone goes off-plan the bureau, directed by “The Chairman,” who we never meet, steps in to correct things.
Norris is given a choice: He can forget all about what he just saw and continue on with his life, which he is assured is destined for big things, or he can make waves, run his mouth and eventually have his mind erased by the bureau. Oh yeah, and that lovely young woman he just fell in love with on the bus? He can’t have her and should forget all about her.
Norris goes along with it for a while, but a chance encounter with Elise a few years later convinces him that he can no longer live with someone else’s plan and has to make one of his own. The adjustment bureau has other plans and actively tries to thwart him. Norris fights back with some help and tries to save his budding romance as well as his dream of reentering politics.
The acting is terrific and the questions this film raises are even better–namely, how far would you go and how much would you risk to pursue your own happiness, even when you have been told that what you want can never happen?Adjustment.jpg
Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in “The Adjustment Bureau”
‘The Adjustment Bureau’ challenges our free will
By DAMASO REYES
Special to the AmNews
One of the oldest questions that religion and philosophy have struggled with is: How much, if any, free will do we have? Are our paths already determined for us, or is every choice we make our own? Even the most religious among us today believes that we have some control over our own lives–after all, how can you attain salvation if you can’t choose to be damned?
“The Adjustment Bureau” challenges that idea in a clever, fast-paced film that makes you think. Matt Damon plays David Norris, a rough-and-tumble New York congressman who is running for senate at the opening of the film. He is being watched and followed–by whom we are unsure, but “they” are keeping tabs on him. As it turns out, Norris is a little too rough around the edges and some incriminating college photos are leaked, costing him the election. When he heads into the men’s room of his hotel to practice his concession speech, he discovers Elise (Emily Blunt) hiding there. They talk and share a kiss before she runs off, presumably never to be seen again.
He gives an earnest and humorous concession speech, inspired by this woman, and moves on with his life, taking a job at a friend’s investment firm. He soon bumps into Elise again on the bus on his way to work, and this time he gets her phone number.
As it turns out, he was never supposed to meet her again. When he walks into the conference room at his office he discovers all of his coworkers frozen in mid-action, and a group of fedora-wearing men doing something to them. Norris, of course, runs away as quickly as he can, but is quickly captured.
He is introduced to the adjustment bureau by Richardson (“Mad Men”‘s John Slattery), who is handling his case. It turns out that we have less freedom than we think we do. Sure, we can decide what we want to have for lunch, but when it comes to the broad strokes of our lives “The Plan” is what really counts. If someone goes off-plan the bureau, directed by “The Chairman,” who we never meet, steps in to correct things.
Norris is given a choice: He can forget all about what he just saw and continue on with his life, which he is assured is destined for big things, or he can make waves, run his mouth and eventually have his mind erased by the bureau. Oh yeah, and that lovely young woman he just fell in love with on the bus? He can’t have her and should forget all about her.
Norris goes along with it for a while, but a chance encounter with Elise a few years later convinces him that he can no longer live with someone else’s plan and has to make one of his own. The adjustment bureau has other plans and actively tries to thwart him. Norris fights back with some help and tries to save his budding romance as well as his dream of reentering politics.
The acting is terrific and the questions this film raises are even better–namely, how far would you go and how much would you risk to pursue your own happiness, even when you have been told that what you want can never happen?