The Adjustment Bureau
Dir: George Nolfi
2011
***
I read Philip K. Dick's short story 'The Adjustment Team' years ago and I think it's in need of a re-read asap just to remind myself of what I believe was the final message as this film has muddled and mixed so many messages together I lost track. At times the message seemed to contradict itself, or at least skip over what I believe was the overall message. Director George Nolfi has stated that it is a 'Loosely based' adaptation of the story and that the "intention of this film is to raise questions". I disagree, I think the original story did raise questions but the film does not - or at least not the intended questions. Okay, so I liked the casting. I think it's nice to see a good actress like Emily Blunt in a role like this rather than some blow-up doll with blond hair and big breasts. I liked the way it looked also, although Dark City did this sub-genre brilliantly and in my opinion it is yet to be bettered. I also liked the ending, or should I say, the lack of fireworks. I thought it was keeping with the theme and it could have been very easy (but wrong) to inject a bit of unnecessary action - the door thing was quite enough. My biggest gripe, and it is quite big, is that as a fan of Mr. K Dick's stories, I feel that yet again, he has been let down by another badly judged adaptation. The film should have been about defiance, free will and the illusion of fate. This film basically says that free will is fine because God says so, which is a complete contradiction. I don't know, Dick hated Blade Runner, so who knows, he might have loved it - but I doubt it very much. Now stop reading my silly little review and read one of his excellent books instead.