Something to watch tonight: Friday 25 October

The Adjustment Bureau (Nolfi, 2011)

Every Friday, in my Nights con­ver­sa­tions with Emile, I have to come up with at least one recom­mend­a­tion that is free to stream. It’s a good plan and serves to remind me each week that not every­one can claim stream­ing sub­scrip­tions as a tax deduct­ible expense.

Today I was look­ing at what had just landed on TVNZ+ (here in Aotearoa New Zealand) and my eye was caught by The Adjustment Bureau, a film I vaguely recall enjoy­ing but haven’t giv­en a thought to for nearly 13 years.

My review back in March 2011 looked like this:

Reversing my usu­al pat­tern, I have saved the best until last this week. The Adjustment Bureau is based on a Philip K. Dick short story (like Blade Runner, Minority Report and seem­ingly dozens of oth­ers) and stars Matt Damon as a tal­en­ted New York politi­cian with a gift for self-sabotage. When he falls for beau­ti­ful (and funny) con­tem­por­ary dan­cer Emily Blunt, he starts to see strange men in suits and trilbys rearran­ging the men­tal fur­niture and sus­pects some­thing is up. It turns out these fugit­ives from the set of “Mad Men” (includ­ing one genu­ine Mad Man, John Slattery) are “exec­ut­ives” sent by “the Chairman” to redir­ect people back to “the plan” when they stray.

That’s right – we have no free will, we just think we do, and Matt Damon has seen the secret. In order to be with the woman he loves, he must out­wit the be-hatted ones (includ­ing the great Terence Stamp), find the Chairman and per­suade him to change the Plan. What helps is that these agents of (let’s just call him) God have some­what lim­ited powers. In fact you might say they are only par­tially omnipotent.

Refer a friend

The real strength of this slightly silly adven­ture is the warm, witty and fresh rela­tion­ship between Blunt and Damon – smarter and more genu­inely romantic than any rom-com. You really root for this couple and the invest­ment pays off. I enjoyed The Adjustment Bureau and wouldn’t mind watch­ing it again – and I hardly ever say that.

But I nev­er did watch it again, life moves on too fast. The Adjustment Bureau is one of those films that you won’t regret watch­ing even if it wasn’t a big enough suc­cess to have lingered in the col­lect­ive consciousness.

Damon and Blunt are two of the best we have – I’m kind of amazed to real­ise they have both been around so long. I recom­men­ded Blunt’s debut film, My Summer of Love, here last year and that came out twenty years ago.

Also in that Capital Times column: Saw VII (“… it seemed lacklustre to me, as if the team’s heart wasn’t really in it. Maybe it had been ripped out in a pre­vi­ous ‘game’.”), Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis in the Farrelly Brothers’ awful Hall Pass, and “sci-fi for the Twilight gen­er­a­tion” I Am Number Four.

Where to watch The Adjustment Bureau

Aotearoa: Streaming on TVNZ+ (free with ads)

Australia: Streaming on Paramount+

Canada: Streaming on Prime Video

Ireland & UK: Streaming on Sky

USA: Digital rental