Home Entertainment Movie Reviews The Adjustment Bureau – Que Sera, Sera

The Adjustment Bureau – Que Sera, Sera

This is a romantic thriller, driven by a sci-fi element but is so devoid of imagination that it’s really just another story about bad guys chasing good guys. There is a great deal of dialogue, much of which is exposition about a fantasy world that lacks magic and, in the end, all this film really delivers are some great visuals of New York City.

David Norris (Matt Damon) is a New York politician who loses his chance of a seat in the U.S. Senate due to unorthodox behavior. He’s still dealing with this disappointment when he meets and becomes besotted with Elise Selias (Emily Blunt), but his plans to have a relationship with her are thwarted by a group of mysterious men. David discovers they are from an extra-terrestrial organization called the Adjustment Bureau and are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that everyone meets the destiny that has been mapped out for them.

The writer tries to make the two main characters memorable right at the beginning by getting each of them to do something outrageous but after this they revert to their sensible, rather ordinary selves, so these initial introductions feel like cheap shots. The back story we are fed about David is tragic but comes off as a clunky attempt to make him an empathetic figure, telling us nothing about how these events made him the man he has become. Facts and jobs are meaningless without a link to their psychological impact; character doesn’t come from without, but from within.

Creating the personification of Fate, which is what the Adjustment Bureau is, is a heady task, and conjures up visions of ethereal bodies and celestial voices that whisper words of infinite wisdom and reveal to us the secrets that have eluded us even though we have looked so hard. But what we actually get is a bunch of hard-knocks in raincoats and fedoras, accompanied by an entourage zipped up in clinging leather body suits and crash helmets, none of which is quite the spiritual experience we would expect from an encounter with destiny.

The message in this film seems to be that our lives are all mapped out but, if we feel passionately enough about something, we can renegotiate the plan. Personally, I don’t think trying to derail fate is a great idea mostly because it sounds dangerous and, as we all know, when we make plans, God’s looking down, laughing his head off.

RELEASE DATES

Bosnia – 3 March 2011

Greece – 3 March 2011

Malaysia – 3 March 2011

Russia – 3 March 2011

Singapore- 3 March 2011

Thailand – 3 March 2011

Canada – 4 March 2011

Estonia – 4 March 2011

Phlipns – 4 March 2011

Poland – 4 March 2011

Spain – 4 March 2011

UK – 4 March 2011

USA – 4 March 2011

Denmark – 10 March 2011

Germany – 10 March 2011

Portugal – 10 March 2011

Slovenia – 10 March 2011

Finland – 11 March 2011

Iceland – 11 March 2011

Norway – 11 March 2011

Sweden – 11 March 2011

Egypt – 16 March 2011

Hong Kong- 17 March 2011

Belgium – 23 March 2011

France – 23 March 2011

Nethlands- 24 March 2011

Hungary – 31 March 2011

Italy – 27 May 2011

Japan – 27 May 2011

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