Philip K. Dick is widely remembered for his unparalleled sci-fi imagination, and the latest adaptation of one of his short stories, “The Adjustment Bureau,” is rife with that. Less widely acknowledged — but certainly known by the late author’s fans — is that PKD was a decent character writer, too.
A slight twist on the norm
Granted, he tended to write one kind of character: The down-on-his-luck poor schlub who is paranoid (with good reason) of the government. This character (always a man) could barely hold a job, pay the bills or keep a girlfriend. If his life was going OK for a stretch, his paranoia would undercut it. David Norris (Matt Damon) in “The Adjustment Bureau” is a slight twist on the PKD standard in that he’s good-looking and a successful politician (plus his apartment isn’t TOO dingy). But he does indeed have higher-ups pulling his puppet strings.
I haven’t read “The Adjustment Team” yet (I gravitate to PKD’s novels more than his short stories, but someday I intend to read everything he wrote), but I assume writer-director George Nolfi didn’t mess with the original plot too much: A group of men in suits and hats (whose boss, it’s hinted, is God Himself) keeps an eye on humanity to make sure everyone is following The Plan. Think “Fringe’s” Observers, but less mysterious.
“The Adjustment Bureau” (2011)
Director: George Nolfi
Writers: George Nolfi, Philip K. Dick
Stars: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Lisa Thoreson
When David goes off The Plan by falling for beautiful dancer Elise (Emily Blunt), the Adjusters are out to stop him. I love that Nolfi stayed true to the spirit of PKD’s works in that we don’t get a bunch of clichéd car chases or gunplay or fisticuffs in “The Adjustment Bureau.” Rather, we get warnings about brain-wipes and speeches about free will, and although stuff like this always plays better on the pages of a musty old book than in film, it works here because it’s a timeless question: Should we stick close to what’s expected of us, or should we take a chance?
Easy to root for
Of course, if we didn’t like the characters, none of that would matter. I don’t know if PKD or Nolfi is the one who deserves credit for this, but here’s the main reason why “The Adjustment Bureau” is great: David and Elise are easy to root for, and I was rooting for the two of them to be together. The theme of “Love conquers all” could make for a predictable, hard-to-watch romance film, but the fact that this is an idea-driven sci-fi movie and not a romance — at least not in the marketing sense of the word — makes “The Adjustment Bureau” a wonderful surprise.
I had never really understood the Blunt hype, but her character is completely adorable here. For a romance to work, the viewer has to fall for the girl (or guy, as the case may be) too, and the meet-cutes here are home runs every time (there are three of them because, you see, they are never SUPPOSED to meet again). In the first one, David is preparing his concession speech in what he thinks is an empty men’s room when an embarrassed Elise emerges from a stall: She crashed a wedding in the building and was hiding from security.
But she’s not just some quirky dame who will save our hero; she’s a character, too (and I suspect this might’ve been Nolfi’s contribution more so than PKD’s). Crashing weddings is not something Elise normally does, but she had challenged herself to do it, just for the sake of exercising her free will and feeling alive. That key character trait makes this not just David’s journey, but hers as well, and you’ll want to join them on it.