Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
This movie comes out March 4. This evening I attended a free advance screening of held for a local news anchor who cameos as himself in the film. I wanted to highlight it for people who have seen the trailers and maybe weren't sure what to make of it.
Wow, was I surprised. Usually films that get delayed over and over again turn out to be terrible. This one is a marvelous movie, just impossible to market. It takes the central idea from a Philip K. Dick story, that there are shadowy people who manipulate events to ensure predestined outcomes, and expands the scope almost beyond belief.
It is a real science fiction story, with no guns or explosions or violence. There are a couple chase scenes, but they are literally chase scenes: with people, on foot. Nobody's life is in danger. The stakes are far more important than that. Matt Damon is phenomenal as the Brooklyn Congressman aiming to be the next U.S. Senator from the great state of New York. The political details achieve absolute verisimilitude; all of the TV stations are real TV stations, none of the phone numbers are 555 phone numbers. The film was shot on location in New York and feels like it. The film explores questions of free will and destiny, and explores them seriously. The choices are never simple. The dance between science fiction and theology is calibrated perfectly, and the mechanics of this universe are elaborate, but clearly defined and justified. It fully acknowledges the faults and failings of the human species, even as it celebrates the human ability to defy limitations.
The shadowy figures that compose the Adjustment Bureau omnipresent but neither infallible nor unbeatable. Their advantages are accompanied by weaknesses that more or less balance out; they are not blank faces, but characters every bit as developed as the "normal" characters. In a world that is proven to be preordained, their success at any given task is never preordained.John Slattery is a highlight as Richardson, the adjuster assigned to get Damon's Congressman back onto the Plan. He balances the comedic and the dramatic perfectly with a working man's affability as he is increasingly frustrated by the Congressman's efforts to blaze his own trail. Anthony Mackie is phenomenal as Richardson's predecessor on the case, who is seriously second guessing the assigned task. Terence Stamp is bone-chilling as Richardson's successor, who doesn't chase the Congressman but instead presents him with a cruel ultimatum. Emily Blunt manages the impossible, presenting a love interest who could plausibly induce a man to go to war with destiny itself.
This is screenwriter George Nolfi's directorial debut. His only other credits were the subpar screenplay for Timeline, the perfectly mediocre screenplays for Ocean's Twelve and The Sentinel, and the solid screenplay for Bourne Ultimatum. Nothing from any of those movies would have suggested he had a movie like this in him. It's perhaps the most astonishingly confident debut film I've ever seen.
Wow, was I surprised. Usually films that get delayed over and over again turn out to be terrible. This one is a marvelous movie, just impossible to market. It takes the central idea from a Philip K. Dick story, that there are shadowy people who manipulate events to ensure predestined outcomes, and expands the scope almost beyond belief.
It is a real science fiction story, with no guns or explosions or violence. There are a couple chase scenes, but they are literally chase scenes: with people, on foot. Nobody's life is in danger. The stakes are far more important than that. Matt Damon is phenomenal as the Brooklyn Congressman aiming to be the next U.S. Senator from the great state of New York. The political details achieve absolute verisimilitude; all of the TV stations are real TV stations, none of the phone numbers are 555 phone numbers. The film was shot on location in New York and feels like it. The film explores questions of free will and destiny, and explores them seriously. The choices are never simple. The dance between science fiction and theology is calibrated perfectly, and the mechanics of this universe are elaborate, but clearly defined and justified. It fully acknowledges the faults and failings of the human species, even as it celebrates the human ability to defy limitations.
The shadowy figures that compose the Adjustment Bureau omnipresent but neither infallible nor unbeatable. Their advantages are accompanied by weaknesses that more or less balance out; they are not blank faces, but characters every bit as developed as the "normal" characters. In a world that is proven to be preordained, their success at any given task is never preordained.John Slattery is a highlight as Richardson, the adjuster assigned to get Damon's Congressman back onto the Plan. He balances the comedic and the dramatic perfectly with a working man's affability as he is increasingly frustrated by the Congressman's efforts to blaze his own trail. Anthony Mackie is phenomenal as Richardson's predecessor on the case, who is seriously second guessing the assigned task. Terence Stamp is bone-chilling as Richardson's successor, who doesn't chase the Congressman but instead presents him with a cruel ultimatum. Emily Blunt manages the impossible, presenting a love interest who could plausibly induce a man to go to war with destiny itself.
This is screenwriter George Nolfi's directorial debut. His only other credits were the subpar screenplay for Timeline, the perfectly mediocre screenplays for Ocean's Twelve and The Sentinel, and the solid screenplay for Bourne Ultimatum. Nothing from any of those movies would have suggested he had a movie like this in him. It's perhaps the most astonishingly confident debut film I've ever seen.
