First, before I start pointing out gaping plot holes or discussing the philosophical problems I have with some of the film's basic messages, let me just say that I enjoyed it very much. It was fun, it definitely held my interest--no "how much longer is this movie?" moments at all, and the plot holes and philosophical differences were not annoying enough to me personally to ruin that enjoyment. I also particularly like, in books and movies, this particular genre of fantasy, so I was, I suppose, predisposed to having fun with it. Also, we had free passes!
Okay, onto what the movie is about. Matt Damon is a young, charismatic senatorial candidate from NY whose lead in the race is blown when pictures of him mooning his college friends are leaked to the newspapers. On the evening of his defeat, preparing to make a hokey cliche concession speech, he cute-meets a woman hiding in the men's room. After sharing a few moments of conversation and a kiss, he goes out and instead of making his planned speech, gets up and just talks honestly. (This turns out to be so electrifying, it revives his whole political career.) Meanwhile, we the audience are being shown the guys in the hats--the Adjustment Bureau--keeping tabs on him. A month later, on his first day at his new private sector job, we're shown two of the AB guys in the park, one telling the other that Damon must spill his coffee on his tie by 7:05. The guy that's supposed to make this happen dozes off on the park bench, however. Matt Damon gets on his bus undisturbed, bumps into the woman from the men's room again (who he hasn't been able to get out of his mind) and after sharing more chemistry, gets her number, and then arrives at his new job on time. Where he finds everyone frozen in time and his friend/colleague being mindswept with some kind of device. Heh. This all was not supposed to happen.
After a chase scene, we find out that there is a Higher Power keeping humanity on The Plan, and the Adjustment Bureau is tasked with nudging us back onto it whenever we start to stray from the path that is our fate. Matt was never supposed to see that woman again (so they take her number away from him and burn the card) and he was certainly not supposed to see Charlie getting his mind adjusted. They threaten Matt that if he ever reveals to anyone what he knows, his mind will be completely wiped, his thoughts, memories, and entire personality erased, and it will appear to everyone as if he's gone insane. Quibble: kinda think if he ever attempted to tell anyone this shit, they'd think he was insane anyway, but whatever.
Then the rest of the movie is about Matt three years later again running into the same woman, finding themselves desperately in love, and the Adjustment Bureau calling in the big guns to keep them apart. Because Matt's fate is to win his next senatorial campaign and eventually become president, and that can't/won't happen if her hooks up with her. Quibble #2: if it's so important to the course of all humanity that he become president, the threat of his being mindwiped becomes impotent, right? (Insert joke here about how drooling idiots *have* become POTUS, but how it's not ideal. Thanks.)
Quibble #3 and a little dip into philosophical waters: when the Adjustment Bureau guys (who are, basically, angels, which I should just call them to save on typing) are perplexed amongst themselves about why Matt and the girl keep running into each other by chance and why they are so smitten even though they aren't supposed to be together, there's some exposition that they originally--in an earlier version of The Plan--*were* supposed to be together and the echoes of that are what's causing all this, but how The Plan was changed circa 2005. It's never explained *why* The Plan would have suddenly been changed in 2005 and it's kinda hand-waved as "well, no one can ultimately understand The Plan but The Chairman (i.e God)." Which is an easy way out of plot problems, yo, and an easy way out of philosophical discomfort about the horrible things that happen in the world under a supposedly loving Supreme Being that's been used since Job, if not earlier. It's one of those things us heathens who don't just accept handwaving have with certain religious teachings, but it doesn't really hold up with movie plots either.
More philosophical disagreement: I was trying to explain this immediately after the movie and failing horribly, but I feel this kind of love story is incredibly culturally poisoning. The idea that you can see someone, meet someone, and instantly be "in love" and know that person is your soulmate is bogus. The conflation of attraction/chemistry with actual love has caused a lot of misery in the world. As I said last night, I wouldn't want a teenaged girl watching a steady stream of this kind of movie. They're best saved for cynical old broads like myself.
Final philosophical disagreement (this didn't even bother me when I was actually watching the movie, only in retrospect): there's a scene in which Matt asks an angel, "What about free will?!??!" and it is explained to him that humankind was being "guided" up through the Roman Empire and then the decision was made that maybe we were ready for Free Will. So we got it and, oops, there go The Dark Ages. So after a few hundred years of that failed experiment, we were guided again, and we got the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. So around 1910, we were given it back and, oops, World War I, the Great Depression, the Holocaust, the Cold War. So we lost it again before we could annihilate the planet with nuclear war. Watching the film, this caused just a little chuckle, but when I thought about it, how ridiculously Eurocentric is this? While Europe was in the Dark Ages, there were some pretty advanced civilizations cranking along in Central America and China and India. But I guess those were insignificant to The Plan, huh? And while, yes, the Holocaust was a horrible episode in human history***, what about the genocide of the native peoples of the Americas while we were supposedly being guided? I guess the Jews are important to The Plan, but the Native Americans not so much. OF COURSE, this just shows you the biases of the screenwriters, who I am sure were primarily, if not solely, a bunch of white males.
But it brings up a wider philosophical issue that I have with not just the movie, but with organized religion in general. That one little scene shows that the writers of the movie firmly believe that *their* history/culture is the One That Matters, that *they* are of course who is important. Well, I personally believe that is one of the basic psychological reasons religion was invented. We, as human beings, want to believe, against any and all evidence to the contrary, that we matter. From the time I was old enough to apply reason to what they force fed me in church and Catholic school, I had cognitive dissonance about the concept that the Supreme Creator of the Universe could really give a crap about things like whether I personally was at Mass on a Sunday, or if/how/with whom I had sex, or whether OMG I took his name in vain. It attached an importance to me and my petty little actions that I knew was ridiculous. But after having many years to ponder this and the societal ramifications thereof, I do realize that it is a basic psychological need many people have. In order to not feel alone and adrift in a random world, they need to convince themselves that they are in fact important enough to have a Supreme Being concerned about them and all the petty details of their existence. (That woman I told you about who was convinced Jesus cares about her weight loss is that taken to its most ridiculous extreme, but really, how is that any different than every NFL or MLB player who gives thanks to Jesus for his victory? If there is a Supreme Being, I guarantee you he doesn't give a shit who won the Superbowl.)
1...2...3... Oh, Andrea, it was just a movie!
Yes, yes, it was. And a fun one. Don't let me dissuade you from seeing it, particularly for free.
xoxo
*** don't you go all "Godwin's Law" on me, or I'll be forced to counter with this:
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