Movie review: The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau
(M) 120 minutes

Is there such a thing as fate?
The Adjustment Bureau asks us to believe so, and to open our minds to the suggestion that a detailed, inflexible plan has been prepared for all of us.
Employed to enforce these plans is a team of what resemble shady 1950s Government spooks, whose fedora hats allow them to use any doorway as a portal between worlds.
In a clever turn of secularism, the man behind the plan is referred to as The Chairman.
When one of these guardian G-men accidentally allows charismatic politician David Norris (Matt Damon) to stray from his destiny and be unexpectedly reunited with Elise (Emily Blunt), the mysterious dream girl he was never supposed to see again, things take a reality-bending turn.
The guardians bail Norris up and show him behind the curtain few other mortals have seen.
The confused and miffed Norris is told he should go on living his life like nothing has happened - and if he mentions the existence of this apparent adjustment bureau to anyone, a couple of guys in fedora hats will drop in and reset him like an alarm clock.
It's all well and good until comes the hidden clause - by getting back on plan he has to stop chasing the mystery girl as well.
Norris of course chooses love and what we end up with is a rather silly concept - some have slightly likened it to a sci-fi chick flick - which leaves the more cynical cinema-goer to fall back on the efforts of the two leads.
Damon is just as we've all seen him so many times before, smooth and solid, while Blunt, who shone so brightly in The Young Victoria, struggles a little here.
Ultimately The Adjustment Bureau is a film for the forgivingly open-minded who enjoyed similar-veined scenarios like Dark City, The Matrix, Vanilla Sky, The Truman Show or City of Angels.
For the rest of us, our imaginations might need a little pre-viewing adjustment.