Meant to Be

Y’ know wha’, for a sci-fi thriller based on a Philip K. Dick story, the well-worth-the-wait-since-last-fall The Adjustment Bureau is quite the romantic one – and I hearted it all that much more for it.

It doesn’t hurt that Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have this crazy chemistry.

Seriously, if the two weren’t so obviously and freakin’ happily married in real life (he to his lovely wife Luciana; she to the dreamy John Krasinski), I’d be rooting for them to get together, which is kinda jerky for me to say, but that’s just how terrific they are on screen.

They make it look that easy, to have first a meaningful rapport and then this defy-the-odds relationship that sparks so beautifully – all for our entertainment, no less.

Damon plays David Norris in this pot-boiler from Bourne Ultimatum screenwriter George Nolfi. He’s a hot-shot politico from New York on the fast track (when we first meet him he’s on the brink of winning a seat in the U.S. Senate). He’s young and good-looking and affable...a super-likeable all-American kinda guy. He’s got a bit of a wild streak,yeah, but he’s oh-so-candid about the whole thing it’s obvious he sees this as a refreshing whiff of transparency.

His past, however, proves to have one to many liabilities in it, and when one particular (rather benign) frat-boy antic surfaces, it costs him the election.

It is as he’s prepping to concede – to get on with his life until the next time – that his life changes at last and for good.

David is going over his speech in the men’s at the Waldorf. He thinks he’s alone, but, of course, he isn’t. A free-spirited woman, Elise Sellas (Blunt), a ballerina, has been patiently waiting for him to be done so she can continue eluding hotel security (for, you see, she’s crashed a wedding...on a dare to herself). Eventually, she tires of waiting him out, so she comes out and talks to him.

They meet. They flirt. They fall for each other right then and there.

And they are done – their fates are sealed.

(This, btw, is one of the sexiest, most genuine and intelligent Meet Cute scenes I have ever seen committed to the big screen. It rang sincere and it left me wanting more and I totally bought it. Damon and Blunt FTFW!)

Only they were never ever supposed to be meet.

In fact, all of their lives they’ve come thisclose to crossing paths, but usually unseen and quite-powerful forces (namely a group of throwback-y suited men that give major Observers-from Fringe vibes that includes the friendly Anthony Mackie from The Hurt Locker, the cold John Slattery from TV’s Mad Men, and the menacing Terrence Stamp) have been keeping them apart because David and Elise together is not part of the plan.

If they don’t cut it out...if David doesn’t stay on track (he alone has become aware of these adjusters), things will not end well for either of them. You’ll have to watch to see how it all ends for this couple that shall not be denied.

Questions of free will and chance vs. predestination arise in this taut, yet generously structured Adjustment Bureau, but the most important one is the one you’ll have at the end of the film: Can Matt Damon and Emily Blunt work together again soon, please?

My Rating ***1/2

Photo: Universal Pictures.