The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau is a fine, but unimpressive foray into the seeming dichotomy between free will and predestination. However, despite its seeming depth, it entirely fails to provoke thought or instill conviction in the viewer. In a world where every life is plotted out on an animated path, the line between what is predetermined, and what is chosen becomes blurred, as the maps seem to be more of educated predictions than they do determinants, and uniformed men in hats seem to be needed to ensure things go according to plan.

While at first glance, this film is marked as an action movie ,it is, in fact, little more than a love story, and a fine one at that. Character development was excellent. The female protagonist was nice enough to be lovable, but just unpleasant enough to seem real, and the male protagonist's enthusiasm and insecurities made him relatable human.

Mediocrely directed, this film's strength lies in its storyline and in its acting. The greatest flaw in this movie is its lack of clarity and conviction. While seeming to endorse predestination, the subjects still clearly made their own decisions, but suffered consequences when they ignorantly overstepped their plans. In the end, the choices of the protagonists were upheld in a situation where it seemed that they were right and, disturbingly, God was wrong. In fact, throughout the film, blatant references to God and to angels, combined with a lack of clarity and conviction lead me to believe that this film was created merely to exploit the storytelling possibilities of predestination/free will, without clearly taking a stance on it.

On the whole, the plot was excellent, the message was unclear, the acting was satisfactory, the directing was mediocre, and I give it a solid 7.5/10. Entertaining, but unimpressive.