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The Adjustment Bureau

June 1st. Cheap tickets day at HAT 109. I was hopeful about this film, but also a little wary. As it turned out, both preconceptions were met. I liked parts of it a lot and hated parts in equal measure.

Positives first. Matt Damon is a really likeable figure on screen (off it as well, so I hear) and his acting is improving with age, rather like Di Caprio. His partnership with Emily Blunt works very well here - she's great too. The story is based on a Phillip K. Dick novella, and it has a certain nutty charm, reminiscent of an old episode of The Twilight Zone TV show. Some of the set-pieces come off (a couple of chase scenes on foot in particular) but the theme of the film is where the worms come out.

Right off the bat, let me say I can't stand religious propaganda in films. Religion, as a plot point, a theme or even an incidental garnish to a story are all fine with me, but I can't abide the sly stuff (and this is mostly perpetrated by Hollywood). The Adjustment Bureau has it riddled throughout. The ultimate conceit that "The Chairman" has the lives of everyone on earth planned out and these plans must be adhered to is bad enough, but the wet fish ending, as well as being naff, actually contradicts this.

The writers also need to bone up on some history. There's a scene where the typically wooden Terence Stamp soliloquises about when and why 'The Chairman" and his Angelic Hordes abandoned the humans throughout time and when they returned. It should make anybody with an inkling of history utter a quiet "what the fuckles?"

Incidentally; Terence Stamp, David Hemmings, Malcolm McDowell. These three often get mixed up in my mind, though I'm now starting to think Stamp is the lesser of the trio.

P.S. For proper angels, look no further than.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbzUfV3_JIA

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