Despite wobbling under the weight of some hefty ideas while straddling two genres, this sci-fi mystery surprises by emerging as a sweet, star-powered romance. It’s not Blade Runner. It’s not Minority Report. It’s worth chasing down though.
It's Inception for romantics, a love story told through the medium of science-fiction or maybe not; it's hard to peg this by genre. By keeping the pace quick, the explanation light and the characters strong, Nolfi achieves the near-impossible: a film puzzle you won't mind leaving unexplained.
Not a bad night at the movies, but it's nobody's first choice.
Adjust your expectations accordingly, though, and this is still a hugely enjoyable slice of hokum.
Ignore the attempts to put a deeper meaning on matters and just enjoy the ride.
A strange but not unpleasant broth of romantic drama, political thriller, and sci-fi-glazed metaphysics.
This is an essentially light-hearted picture, and – with a pinch of salt – slips down pretty nicely as a dark, speculative comedy on the themes of love, free will and fate.
It gets sillier the longer it goes on, but it’s fairly compulsive viewing.
A very offbeat romance.
As artistic endeavour this gives free will a bad name.
Talk of this being the next Inception is wide of the mark, but as a thought-provoking action flick, it'll do just fine.
The stakes are high in David and Elise's relationship because the script repeatedly tells us they are; we never get to feel this for ourselves through Damon and Blunt's performances.
The climax may side-step some awkward questions, and lack a killer twist, but romantics will be more than satisfied.
It delivers as a chase movie and a passionate romance, but has pleasingly daft, yet vaguely plausible ideas about destiny and free will.
The film reworks A Matter of Life and Death with elements of It's a Wonderful Life and shares techniques and themes with Christopher Nolan's Inception.
The Adjustment Bureau: Emily Blunt interview
The Adjustment Bureau's will won't be done
General release. Check local listings for show times.
RSS feed of Cinema reviews