Jan Wahl Movie Review: 'The Adjustment Bureau'
(KCBS) - KCBS Entertainment Editor Jan Wahl reviews the romantic action film starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt.
THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (PG-13)
From The African Queen to Jewel of the Nile, romantic action movies can be a blast of fun and energy. It helps to have a smart, interesting guy AND gal. Happily, that is just what we get in this adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story about the nature of fate. Matt Damon is a politician, Emily Blunt a dancer. They fall in love in a way unusual for today's mainstream Hollywood movies: it's natural, spontaneous, believable, not forced or vapid. Enter The Adjustment Bureau, determined to keep these two apart. As our protagonist wrestles with his future, the laws of time and space are altered..as visual and visceral as Inception, but with a clear narrative and anchored by this couple we end up rooting for. The dialogue, adapted by director George Nolfi, as well as the pacing and clarity gets us involved in lofty questions about predetermination without the overuse of effects or symbolism. By keeping it simple and giving us characters to connect with and care about, the movie is worth your time and money. Three hats.
TO SEE RIGHT NOW: NORA'S WILL, I AM, BARNEY'S VERSION, THE KING'S SPEECH
DVD/HOME VIDEO: THE SUNSHINE CLEANERS (EMILY BLUNT/AMY ADAMS), SOCIAL NETWORK, BURLESQUE, GENIUS WITHIN: THE INNER LIFE OF GLENN GOULD
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