Review: The Adjustment Bureau

Available here.

So The Adjustment Bureau is a Philip K. Dick adaption. A loose Philip K. Dick adaption. It’s so loose, in fact, the only recognizable Dickish element is the basic plot, where protagonist Matt Damon ends up realizing what he thought about the nature of reality is false. Other than that, well, it’s just another generic sci-fi semi-thriller.

Like I say in the review, I don’t mind when adaptations depart from the source material. But if you’re gonna diverge, you have to fill in the gaps with material of your own. With The Adjustment Bureau, in an attempt to capture people with heart, the focus is squarely on the love story. Fine. Awesome. We all love love. But the details of the Bureau and its rules are flat, unimaginative; the reasons Damon and would-be lover Emily Blunt are kept apart come down to fairly trite rules of life. There’s nothing really there. The end result is something far blander than Dick ever wrote.