The Adjustment Bureau

I think I've figured out why all of my reviews of movies are positive: I am just not motivated to tell you about the ones I don't like. But I will discipline myself to tell you exactly what I don't like about The Adjustment Bureau.

But first, what I do like: the female lead. She's adorable, has an accent, and is a dancer. The scenes in which she dances make it look like she's an actual dancer, although I don't know.

Matt Damon, on the other hand, has already played this role before--at least in the three Bourne movies.

But the ending was just bad:

The Adjustment Bureau takes up the debate between free will and fate. There's The Chairman, who is more or less God, and some men in fedoras, who are more or less angels. The angels adjust people so that they follow The Chairman's Plan. Damon fights The Plan, though, when it means that he can't be with that cute dancer, who he loves. At the end (yes, it's a spoiler, but the movie is pretty crappy, so I don't feel at all bad about it), he decides to confront The Chairman. The Chairman allows him to exert his romantic free will.

The thing is: A) Their will still isn't very free (the plan had previously been for Damon and the chic to get together, so they were prepared to fall in love by the angels and by lots of little details of their life); B) The Chairman allowing them to exert free will in one area isn't exactly free will! It's just a concession in a particular instance. C) I would just prefer if Damon took on the chairman and booted him out. Much more manly.

Plus, then all of the people could have free will forever. But no, the angel adjustment bureau will continue vacuuming out peoples' minds when they think the wrong things. That's just too distopian novel for my tastes, but Damon isn't uncomfortable with it, because he gets the girl. Hello! Getting the girl isn't all there is too life!

Really, at one point, one of the adjustors tries to convince Damon to adhere to plan and give up the girl. He says that if Damon ends up with the girl, neither of them will fulfill their parts of the plan--to become president and world-famous dancer, respectively. They won't fulfill their callings because they'll be content with each other and not consistently strive for approval in their work. If Damon's vocation is to lead people and to be concerned with the common good, then this is just another reason that he should confront The Chairman, rather than accede to the benevolent dictator.


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