It wasn’t until the middle of February in 2010 that I found my first 5/5 worthy film in Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island”, a heart pounding, gut-wrenching, brilliantly performed thriller that left my jaw on the floor and set a huge standard for the rest of the year, ending up as my #4 favorite by December. As February came and went and so did forgettable films like “I Am Number Four”, my hopes were starting to wane in general for 2011 in general when it came to movies and when exactly I was gonna get that first truly great film worthy of that perfect score. With immaculate cinematography one heck of a great execution that covers all bases on an already fantastic premise, The Adjustment Bureau is a knock out of a director knowing exactly what film he wanted to make and polishing it up just enough to make it an unforgettable adventure that is not only my favorite film of 2011 so far but if it doesn’t end up in the top five come December, it means the last half of 2011 had some phenomenal films that topped this colossal bar. The film follows Devin Norris, a hopeful senator that falls in love by happen stance with one of New York City’s best up and coming dancers. However, it’s soon revealed that falling in love with her isn’t part of his or her “plan” according to the “adjustment bureau” , a group of fedora-capped men in suits gifted with supernatural abilities that are there to make sure things in the world go to plan. The majority of the film works like a game of cat and mouse between Norris and these mysterious men with Norris trying to convince the bureau to let him write his own path. Whenever I first saw the trailer for the film back last March before the film was delayed, I was convinced that A) I wanted to see the film desperately and B) that there’s no chance the film could live up to my expectations and deliver on such a profound concept with themes of fate and “love that conquers all”. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The Adjustment Bureau introduces this concept of a mysterious group of men that in control fate in a very profound but unexplained way. Towards the end of the film (without spoiling anything) part of their “powers” gets explained and exploited in a way that only sheds just a crack of light on this fantastic quadre of villains. Same goes for the rest of the film, you see these men maybe in the background of a scene or constantly doing something malicious to sabotage Norris. You’re never even told why these men are out to get him and his romance other than it’s “against the plan”, and that works brilliantly. They’re supposed to be mysterious, you’re never supposed to know just quite what these guys can do fully, and by the end you have just as many questions as you do answers. I 100% believe this was intentional and maybe there’s some deeper subtext there about how fate works in mysterious ways, or maybe I’m just reading too far into this. By the end of the film we’ve been told this modern day fable about this fascinating visualization of fate itself and how its taken a certain form that just so happens to marry these ideas of science fiction and romance in a way that’s honestly darn hard to leave the viewer wanting more. There’s no unexplored concept here, no stone left unturned when it came to implementing our own ideas of fate and even religion and molding them into a enthralling film inhibiting an amazing concept brought to life. It's phenomenal and really shows talent on a director's part when he can bring a concept like that to the table and leave me as a viewer that was asking quite a bit from the film walking away completely satisfied with how the answers (and even some lingering questions) were brought about. It's insane to think he packs such a fascinating message in a two hour film and does it so efficiently. Matt Damon brought to life one of the best performances from last year in the Coen Brothers’ “True Grit:” as Texas Ranger “Labeouf”. Half of the film Damon has to play a character with a speech impediment that at the same time is cocky and reliable. Here he turns in another awesome performance that makes us question why this guy hasn’t won an Oscar yet despite consistently great performances in “The Informant!”, “The Departed”, or heck even “True Grit”. Seriously, John Hawkes? Thanks for breaking out of that stereotype of being stuck up Academy Awards by nominating a guy for the movie 15 people saw. There are professional movie bloggers I follow that didn’t even watch “winter’s Bone”, in fact I think there are more people that saw “Mars Needs Moms” or “Take Me Home Tonight” than “winter’s Bone”. Also, Mark Ruffalo for Best Supporting Actor for “The Kids Are All Right” but absolutely no recognition for his smarmy, know-it-all role in Rian Johnson’s “The Brothers Bloom”. Now that my Oscar rant is out of the way cough *Melissa Leo stole the Oscar from Steinfeld*cough, we can move on to the performance at hand. One could argue that part is a tad bit underwritten by protagonist standards, but the guy is undeniably great in The Adjustment Bureau at bringing a character off of the page straddling the line between an everyday man sense of believability along with a really genuine way of reading his lines that makes it seem like he believes in every last word he’s saying. Also whenever the script calls on him to channel his inner action star Mr. Bourne is more than happy to assist. Emily Blunt is also fantastic as the romantic lead, and her British accent (whether or not it’s genuine is unbeknownst to me) adds a nice flavor to the film. On the “adjustors” side of things are Mad Men’s John Slattery and Terence Stamp as one of the bureau’s “higher ups”. John Slattery does an unbelievable job as sort of the middleman for the adjustment bureau that likes to talk a big game but you get the feeling that he’s always just covering his tracks and planning his next move as it happens. Terrence Stamp, known for being the classic bad guy in a lot of recent films like the underrated comedy “Get Smart”, portrays the “second in command” for the bureau as a guy that is apparently so h
igh up on the corporate ladder he gets to wear a fedora, a three piece suit, AND a scarf. I guess now would be the best time to explain that the adjustment bureau might just be the best-dressed squad of evildoers in movie history. I wanna shop where these guys shop. If Terence Stamp is as cool as he is being the film’s main bad guy and he’s still below the chairman, I’d hate to see how awesome his boss must be.
twojewsonfilm_2
"The Adjustment Bureau - The Two Jews On Film Think This One Needs Adjusting"
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