Friday, June 6, 2014

A Ghoul Versus The Adjustment Bureau (Part 2)

Click here for Part One!

David invites Elise to come along because he doesn't want to let her out of his sight, but she tells him she has to go rehearse for her big show later that night. Then immediately after that she says “Actually, I just heard they're moving my rehearsal to Pier 17, right next to the bridge.” Huh? What is going on? SLOW DOWN MOVIE!

We see the angels are able to send fake texts to people's phones, so it's safe to assume this is how they got Charlie to the cafe and Elise to learn her practice session was being moved. It would have maybe been nice to SHOW them getting the texts, as this comes off so abrupt in the movie. The pace of this scene is so fast I had to rewind it a couple of times to make sure I didn't miss anything. Repeat: I had to rewind a talky scene! This scene had more action than the entire the film Max Payne.

Before he's sprinted off by Charlie to the bridge, David tells Elisa he won't let anything come between them again. This is supposed to be all touching and romantic, but again, THEY HAVE NOTHING BETWEEN THEM to inspire this kind of dialogue. I suppose you could make the case for “love at first sight” but come on... this movie is way smarter than that.

David gives his speech while Elisa gets a text telling her the rehearsal has been moved to Cedar Lake. Oh, they show this one but not the one she had to have got a bit ago? Rhargh, After this speech David spots two of the angels in a nearby building, rushing off to Pier 17. He finds the door locked with a sign saying the practice has been moved, which the angels REALLY should have snagged because now he knows where to look for Elise.

Richardson realizes David isn't going to give up, so he confronts him about giving up on Elise. They talk back and forth as we learn Richardson doesn't know the exact reason they can't be together, just that the plan says they can't. David warns him he is not going to give up, which makes me wonder why they don't just do an adjustment on him like they did Charlie.  I know earlier they said the Chairman is the only person who can authorize an adjustment, so why doesn't he? Since keeping them apart is apparently SO important to his plan, why not just do a simple adjustment on David to make him not like Elise anymore?

David manages to make it to Elise despite Richardson's best attempts to stop him. Richardson is called to see Mr. Donaldson, who is higher up the chain than he is. Donaldson reveals David and Elise WERE meant to be together their entire lives, but the plan changed in 2005 and she was supposed to now be with a man named Adrian. Remnants from the old plan keep pushing the two together, which is why they think they're supposed to be with each other even though they really aren't.

Hmm, well that does explain my biggest problem with the entire film but does that feel really weak to anybody else? I suppose it's better than the non-explanation most films would have given us besides “they're both hot, clearly they're in love!”, but I don't know... not feeling it at all.  Donaldson says they're bringing in Mr. Thompson to deal with the case, who apparently is a super bad ass angel that'll easily solve the problem and force them back on the plan again. It's worth noting there's a cute little pun going on here with the character names, Tom (Thompson), Dick (Richardson), and Harry (uh, Harry. Why isn't he named Harrison like he should be?) that I didn't catch until my second viewing of this.

David and Elise where they go to a club and bond over the magic of the Hollywood Montage. They kiss again, which leads to them having sex at David's. I'm upset at this movie for taking away my chance to rant about “complete strangers having sex right away” due to the reveal we just had. A very stupid reveal, by the way. This gives me shades of “the Will of the Force” from the Star Wars Prequels.  They fall asleep in each others arms, where the camera pans over to reveal Thompson, played by the legendary Terence Stamp, is watching them.  Creeper much? He's likely already counting the money he'll make off a Matt Damon/Emily Blunt sex tape.

Elise is woken up by her phone ringing, her ex Adrian calling her out of the blue. She tells David they were engaged at one point, but called it off. David asks why she didn't marry Adrian, and she replies because of him. What she felt for him, even for a moment, she never wanted to settle for less. David tells her he knows the feeling.

David does another guest spot on the Daily Show, afterward a stagehand walks him through a door that takes him back to the giant room from earlier in the film. Thompson is there waiting, and David finally asks a question I've been wondering ever since we learned what the Adjustment Bureau is.

“What about free will?”

Thompson gives a brief history lesson of the human race and the Bureau's involvement with them. Long story short, he tells David humans only have the APPEARANCE of free will and not the actual thing. The film doesn't even spend a MOMENT on this epic revelation as David goes back to asking why he can't be with Elise.

Thompson answers he was only meant to meet her in the bathroom, so he'd get inspired to give the speech that'd ultimately lead to him become senator and then president. He tells David he can change the world, but this won't happen if he stays with Elise because she'll “rub off” on him with her Manic Pixie Dream Girl hipster ways.  But David doesn't care, staying steadfast in his dedication to be with Elise. Although it's not really his dedication at all, he's just brainwashed by the leftovers from an old plan so none of this works for me. Again, a simple adjustment on him and this entire problem is fixed!

Thompson allows David to go to Elise's show, tagging along with him just to drop another bombshell: if he stays with her it'll not only kill his dream but it'll kill hers as well. She's to become one of the greatest choreographers in the world, but if David stays in her life she'll end up teaching dance to six year olds.

He leaves on this note, but pauses to make one of the dancers drop Elise and hurt her leg. David takes her to a hospital for x-rays, sitting in the waiting room where Thompson shows up to taunt him. David finally has enough and punches him, which exactly is what the angel wanted. He tells David he always does this, Heaven gives him great chances and he squanders them with impulse. As per his character he leaves with another stinger: Elise's ankle is only sprained but if David stays with her it'll get worse. The angels are going to keep torturing her until she's physically broken just so David will become president of the United States... I'm not sure who the real loser of that plan is.

This threat is finally enough to hit home with David, as he leaves her at the hospital alone. We skip to eleven months later, as David is proceeding with his senator campaign at full steam. Charlie shows him a newspaper announcement that Elise is getting married to Adrian tomorrow, which upsets him so much he's all “Fuck it!” and decides to get her back. The Adjustment Bureau: because what does God know anyway?

He meets with Harry, who tells him Thompson was lying and the REAL reason David and Elise can't be together is because Elise is enough for him, she fills the void in his life that he tries to fill with politics. David asks for his help in getting her back, the angel agreeing because he's been motivated by the guilt of killing David's father and brother.

Harry teaches David how to use the doors to teleport around the city, making sure to tell him to NEVER turn the doorknob counterclockwise because that's ONLY for angels. Yeah, good job there Harry. Tell David not to do something and expect him not to do it, because his track record in this movie for listening to Heaven has been STELLAR thus far.

He gives David his hat, as that's how angels are able to turn the doors into teleport portals. With ten minutes to the wedding, which is at the courthouse, David takes off running set to Adam Freeland's AWESOME remix of Sarah Vaughan's Fever. This movie does have some great music, that's for sure. Thompson is altered almost immediately, as we get a highly inventive and well done chase scene.

David makes it to the courthouse, where he finds Elise in the woman's bathroom in a nice inversion of how this whole mess started. Elise is rightfully pissed off at him for abandoning her, so he does his best to explain what's going on.  Thompson arrives with his riot gear agents in tow, now having the authority to do a reset on David. God is okay with turning David, apparently the most important person in the world, into a vegetable but won't do an adjustment on him? 

David takes Elise with him for another chase scene through doors, and if I were a more cynical zombie I'd say this scene exists only so we can watch Emily Blunt's breasts bounce in the most cleavage revealing dress possible.  They end up arriving on Liberty Island, where David explains some more and gives her the choice of going through the next door with him or not. She agrees to go with him as David turns the doorknob COUNTERCLOCKWISE and they find themselves in the Adjustment Bureau.

They run to the roof of the building with Thompson hot on their heels as Harry is called to the Chairman's office. Damn, and you thought getting called to principal's office was bad imagine getting called to GOD'S office?  Angels surround them and it looks like our couple is done for, so they profess their love for each other and kiss.

This causes all the angels to... vanish?  Um, okay?  Is watching humans kiss their true weakness?   No I guess not, because Thompson is still there but before he can do anything Harry appears and hands him a message from the Chairman. This causes Thompson to leave and that's our climax. Harry tells the couple when they went through the door at Liberty Island it shows they were willing to risk everything for each other, so the Chairman was inspired by this to rewrite the entire plan. The angel holds up his book, as we see their paths are together but the grid up ahead of them is now blank. Harry narrates us out on a shot of David and Elise walking down the street hand in hand.

“Most people live life on the path we set for them, too afraid to explore any other. But once in awhile people like you come along who knock down all the obstacles we put in your way. People who realize free will is a gift you'll never know how to use until you fight for it. I think that's the chairman's real plan, the maybe one day we won't write the plan, you will.”

Cue the credits.


I enjoyed this film far more than I ever could have guessed. It was extremely well acted, everyone was on their A-Game here. That is even more impressive when you consider this was the first movie ever directed by George Nolfi, who up to this point in his career was only a screenwriter responsible for the Bourne Ultimatum and... ugh, Ocean's Twelve.

The story flowed great, never got dull, and kept me vested the entire time. THAT is a rarity in most modern movies, so major points there. BUT, and there's always a but, the story is also the movie's biggest problem. It ultimately amounts to a “true love conquers all tale”, which is about the most generic cop out a movie can take. It pretty much totally ignores its own premise by the end which is frustrating, as they set up the free will vs. predetermination concept early on and then... just kind of push it to the side.

Free will OBVIOUSLY exists in this universe or we wouldn't have the Adjustment Bureau. Charlie had free will and was going to override David's goal of investing in solar panels, which was contrary to God's plan. The Adjustment Bureau had to intervene and change his mind, overriding his free will.

However, when David meets Thompson we learn we only have the appearance of free will and that we can't outrun our own fate. Sure, we get to make our own decisions about how brand of toothpaste to buy but anything of significance is taken out of our hands. And when we REALLY screw up like the Dark Ages or World Wars, Heaven steps in and fixes everything.

This not being contradicting enough, none of this seems to matter at the end because God just changes his mind and rewrites everything because love conquers all in a LITERAL deus ex machina ending. Pretty all over the place there. I know the film at heart is a love story, but when they put all that other stuff on the table it's hard to focus on the main course. Too many weighty questions are raised that never get addressed, especially if you're a nitpicky bastard like myself.

Still though, I can easily give this a recommendation to pretty much anyone. Come for the great acting and pacing, just don't expect anything too deep like the movie wants you to think it is. Stay tuned for the second half of my first “Dueling Movies” feature, as I'll be reviewing Source Code next!

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