A Ghoul Versus The Adjustment Bureau (Part 1)

“Dueling Movies: The Adjustment Bureau Vs. Source Code!”

One of my favourite phenomenona in Hollywood is when studios release two identical looking movies at around the same time. It's been going on for years for numerous reasons, despite the fact it almost always ends up hurting both movies because it only serves to confuse most people which is which. For instance, take the recently released films White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen. I CANNOT tell these two movies apart. I honestly think they just released the same movie twice and changed the titles to make some extra money.

In some cases one movie is so vastly superior, while the other is lost to the vague memories of time. See Babe vs. Gordy. In rare cases both movies become very popular and each spawn their legions of fans. See A Bug's Life vs. Antz. A lot of the time despite looking the same they're actually radically different stories. See The Prestige vs. The Illusionist or Observe And Report vs. Paul Blart: Mall Cop. And sometimes they're both just miserable flops that make you wonder why they even bothered going through with it. See First Daughter vs. Chasing Liberty or Mission To Mars vs. Red Planet.

Today we're going to look at the first of two films that released within a month of each other in 2011, The Adjustment Bureau (March 4) and Source Code (April 1).  These fall into the “different despite looking the same” category as I believe they have completely different premises but damn the trailers made them look similar: a handsome young man battles fate to save the woman he loves.  Grab Emily Blunt by the hand and try not to look down her dress and get ready for A Ghoul Versus The Adjustment Bureau!

We meet the star of our movie, Congressman David Norris, played by a very motivated Matt Damon. Through a montage of political events, we learn he's running to be the next senator of New York. He does a guest spot on the Daily Show With Jon Stewart, who brings up an incident in his past where he got into a bar room brawl the same night he was elected to congress. We also learn David lost his entire family when he was just a kid.

Jon Stewart's not the only cameo here, as we get many other appearances from political figures like Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and a bunch of other people I don't recognize because I could care less about politics.  At one of the rallies the camera is sure to focus on a young black man played by Anthony Mackie solemnly watching David from the crowd. The same day, David's childhood best friend and campaign manager Charlie learns the New York Post has broken an embarrassing story about a college prank David played that is going to hurt his election bid.

We cut to election night in a hotel that serves as campaign headquarters, as David has fallen far behind in the voting. From a nearby rooftop, the young black man, whose name is Harry, and three other men look down upon the city. They're all dressed like they just walked straight out of the fifties. Or the FREAKING AWESOME film Dark City. Or the FREAKING AWESOMER TV show Fringe.

Their leader, an older man named Mr. Richardson, says this is going to be a big night for them and it's time to “get him back on track”.  David loses the election, going into a bathroom to rehearse his concession speech. There he runs into Emily Blunt, despite it being the men's bathroom. Blunt is playing a woman named Elise, but more importantly she's the Manic Pixie Dream Girl of the movie. What is that, you may ask? Kirsten Dunst from Elizabethtown. Zooey Deschanel from 500 Days of Summer. Natalie Portman from Garden State.

Get it? She's the wacky carefree girl who doesn't embrace the norms of society and is weird for the sake of weird. Bonus points if they're an artist of some sort. They exist to bring our depressed male hero out of the boring monotony of his life and teach him how to love it while being as goofy as possible.  She's in the bathroom hiding from hotel security, as she tried to crash a wedding unsuccessfully because she “dared herself to do it”. Oh, how zany! Naturally within minutes she's brought David out of his depression with her quirky personality and they start kissing.

Charlie arrives to interrupt the fun. David follows Elise out into the hallway, but security shows up and she runs away. David goes to give his concession speech which is the same ol' generic one we've heard a million times when, inspired by the encounter he just had, says it's all bullshit and goes on to give a genuine and heartfelt one. We find out a bit later this captures the heart of the nation and makes him the instant frontrunner for the 2010 elections, and I realize these past ten minutes could have literally been stretched out to a two hour romantic comedy. Oh wait, it was: see Maid In Manhattan. Actually, don't.

A month later Harry is sitting on a bench in the park where he meets with Richardson, who tells him “he has to spill coffee on his shirt by 7:05 am” and walks away. At 6 am, David wakes up to start his day. It's his first day working for Charlie's new venture capital firm, and he heads there via bus with a cup of coffee in his hand.

We see a clock show it's 7:05, however Harry has drifted off on the bench. He wakes up and realizes he's missed his chance, running after the bus. On the bus David just happens to run into Elise because plot convenience! Harry looks at his watch and sees he's minutes late now, so he gestures at the bus which causes David's coffee to spill all over Elise's skirt. He then gets hit by a taxi, because it's New York and by law you have to get hit by a cabbie at some point there.  Harry isn't even phased by this though, more distressed out looking at a book he's been carrying. The book shows this strange grid on its pages that is changing in real time, the new path a line is making greatly upsetting him.

David asks for Elise's phone number so he can come pick up her skirt to have it cleaned, which even she calls out as a really lame attempt at getting her phone number. Because she's wacky, she says they can be even if he lets her spill some coffee on him. His phone starts ringing, which she takes and hangs up on despite having just been told it's his first day of work. But that's okay, she does look like Emily Blunt after all. 

The phone rings again, so this time she takes it and PUTS IT IN HIS COFFEE CUP. Instead of being fucking pissed off at the loss of his expensive Blackberry phone, he just laughs at how charmingly batshit crazy she is and also because she looks like Emily Blunt.  Elise's stop soon comes up, so she does give David her number as she leaves. Yeah great, what's he supposed to call her on now? He walks her to the door of the bus, telling her the morning after the election he woke up thinking about her. She responds by flipping him off because she's CUH-WAZY CUTE, remember? The only thing missing from this scene was a silly hat.

David calls Charlie to tell him about this, and I guess his phone works despite being powered on when it was dunked in coffee. Bullshit! Charlie also mentions he's going to vote against David's proposal to invest in solar powered panels, which David is really pushing for.  He arrives for work, as we get a really funny scene where he walks to his office greeting people without noticing they're all frozen in place. He enters a board room, where Richardson and some men in riot gear are scanning a frozen Charlie with strange looking machinery while replaying the conversation he just had with David over solar panels over and over again. Richardson is shocked to see David, ordering his men to grab him.

David takes off running, yelling at his secretary to call 911 but then finally realizes she's frozen, saying “Oh.”. Ha hah, that's genuinely funny! Why doesn't Matt Damon do more comedy? Oh wait, Stuck On You. Right.  They soon catch David, taking him to a giant empty room where Richardson introduces himself and his associates as “the people who make sure things go according to plan”. David tries to run again, but Richardson makes the floor raise up to trip him. The old man tells him he can read his mind and proves it by guessing the colour and number David is thinking of, warning him he'll know if he tries to run again.

Richardson reveals David was meant to spill coffee on his shirt which would make him ten minutes late for work, at which time he and his men would have been gone. They were performing an “adjustment” on Charlie, but doesn't explain what that means. He warns David to never reveal their existence to anyone or they'll perform a “reset” on him, which is basically a super-lobotomy that'll erase his entire mind forever.  He warns him he can never see Elise again, taking her number out of his wallet and burning it. They open a door and throw David out, which sends him into Charlie's office. David opens the door, but finds himself looking at another office instead of the giant room.

David and Charlie go to a meeting, where Charlie suddenly wants to invest in the solar panels now. After the meeting Charlie asks David what's wrong, as he should be overjoyed at being reunited with “the girl of his dreams”. David sadly reveals he lost her number and he'll never see her again. The girl of his dreams was someone he'd meet in a men's bathroom who would almost immediately start making out with him? You can pretty much go to any club at one in the morning and meet someone like that! Protip: she probably won't look like Emily Blunt though.

Later David is in a bar, trying to write down what Elise's number was from memory. Harry approaches him and introduces himself, telling him even if he could remember her number he'd never be able to reach her because the Bureau would stop him by making her lose her phone or something similar. David asks him what they did to Charlie, Harry explaining it was a recalibration they were authorized to do that altered the way he thought about the solar panels.

David asks who gave the authorization, learning it was the Chairman. He asks who that is, Harry telling him “That's just a name we use. You use many other names.”. Ohhhhh boy, here we go. Harry tells David they can't keep talking here, instructing him to meet him on a boat later in the day.  On the boat, Harry tells him the adjustment on Charlie was done so his company will shift the way “upstairs” wants it too. He also reveals they can't actually read minds, they can just perceive the way the human mind weighs its options and pick the most likely outcome.

David wonders if they're constantly following him, but Harry says they don't have the manpower to monitor the entire world the entire time. There is also something about water that blocks their ability to do their almost-but-not-quite mind reading, which is why he wanted to meet on a boat. David does away with all pretense and asks Harry is he's an angel. Harry responds “we've been called that.”

David next asks why he's helping him, but Harry won't say. David wants to know why he can't be with Elise, but Harry doesn't know the answer to this particular question. He just muses with the amount of resources Heaven- and let's not kid ourselves here, it is Heaven- has used keeping them apart, it must be for a damn important reason.

But what does Heaven know, right? David is going to keep looking for her, despite Harry telling him he has no chance because the angels will stop him. He adds that even if they weren't trying to keep them separated, it's a city of nine million people and he has no shot of finding her. He advises David to move on with his life.

We jump to three years later, where David HASN'T moved on with his life at all and continues to obsess over Elise. This where I want to say how much I've enjoyed this movie so far, it's very well acted, hasn't gone off the deep end with the Heaven stuff, and it has a great score; but this Elise thing isn't working AT ALL. He's totally hung up on this woman based off what exactly? He's talked to her a grand total of maybe ten minutes his entire life, and the entire time she's pretty much been a space case who maliciously tried to ruin his phone and flipped him off. Sure, she's gorgeous but so is David and he's like a political rock star who is also a rich investment businessman, you can't tell me he hasn't met anyone else that entire time? The movie REALLY needed to set up their relationship a lot stronger, like maybe she was someone he knew his entire life and always pined for, ANYTHING over what we got. This is the crucial plot device that drives the entire movie, and it is laughably bad and unbelievable.  Alright, rant over.

We see David get on the bus, expectantly looking around for Elise and you can tell this is a daily ritual for him. But surprise, surprise, today he FINALLY spots her walking down the street. In your face Harry, in your face! What do stupid angels know anyway?  He tells her he's taken the bus everyday for three years AND has gone through the 757,000 Elises that came up when he Googled her in his attempt to find her. Hmm, apparently our roles have reversed and he's now the Manic Pixie Dream Guy. I mean, that doesn't sound ULTRA STALKER-ISH in the SLIGHTEST.

Elise asks how does he know she doesn't have a boyfriend since it's been years, which is a great question. But it turns out she's still single because plot convenience. Either that, or no one could put up with her which is probably the more likely option honestly. “My last boyfriend broke up with me because I playfully and quirkily burned his house down. MEN! Amirite, women?!”

At the Adjustment Bureau, Richardson is altered that David is off the plan and has found Elise AGAIN. David and Elise go to a cafe and actually get to know SOMETHING about each other, as we learn Elise is a ballet dancer because of course she is. I was going to guess painter, but I can't get them all right!

They are watched by Richardson and his associate, learning from their books that if the two kiss there's no way they'll be able to break them up. Here's where things get REALLY weird as suddenly Charlie shows up out of nowhere and tells David he can't miss his announcement speech at the Brooklyn Bridge. I get the angels manipulated him to go there, but HOW?

Continued in Part 2!