The Adjustment Bureau

Do we control our destiny, or do unseen forces manipulate us? Matt Damon stars in the thriller The Adjustment Bureau as a man who glimpses the future Fate has planned for him and realizes he wants something else. To get it, he must pursue the only woman he's ever loved across, under and through the streets of modern-day New York. On the brink of winning a seat in the U.S. Senate, ambitious politician David Norris (Damon) meets beautiful contemporary ballet dancer Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt)-a woman like none he's ever known. But just as he realizes he's falling for her, mysterious men conspire to keep the two apart. David learns he is up against the agents of Fate itself-the men of The Adjustment Bureau-who will do everything in their considerable power to prevent David and Elise from being together. In the face of overwhelming odds, he must either let her go and accept a predetermined path...or risk everything to defy Fate and be with her.

Director...............................George Nolfi

Matt Damon........................David Norris

Emily Blunt.........................Elise Sellas

John Slattery.......................Richardson

Anthony Mackie.................Henry Mitchell

Michael Kelly......................Charlie Traynor

I enjoy going to the movies, so when my friends invite me, I don’t usually bother to check what we are going to see. This has led me astray a few times, but I’m not a difficult customer – and I have reasonable friends – so mostly, I can’t complain. My last experience was with The Adjustment Bureau, a delightful little gem. They translated the title here in France as L’Agence, so, when I was told we were going to see a film called The Agency I was more or less certain I would be enjoying two hours of secret agents, foreign operatives, and everything else you can expect from a spy thriller. I could not possibly have been more wrong!

The Adjustment Bureau is adapted from a short story by Philip K. Dick, published in 1954 as The Adjustment Team. It's not the first movie to have originated from the mind of this author – Blade Runner and Minority Report are only two of the most well known. In this instance, the story was transformed into a modern day dark comedy that touches upon such hefty subjects as fate, free will, and the active presence of a divine force interfering in the day to day running of our lives.

The film centers on the life of David Norris, an up and coming politician, who is obviously meant for more than the seat in the Senate he is going for – young, a self-made man from a difficult background, confident but also conflicted by what his role is supposed to be - he is everything a voter could hope for in a candidate. Enter Elise, wild, free, a contemporary Ballet dancer. It’s love at first sight. Except, that love is apparently not part of The Plan. So, exit the happily ever after and enter The Adjustment Team, to correct all deviations and put History back on track.

I appreciated the light feel of the film – it could easily have become maudlin or overly emotional – the hero’s fight against an unforgiving destiny is a dramatic ploy we see often enough. But here there is laughter, and there is style – I simply adored the jaunty little hats on all the operatives of the Bureau. The fantastic elements are also incredibly appropriate – note, the doors. How I love the endless possibilities of analysis and interpretations that little piece of imagery allows – and very well integrated to the reality of the movie.

I am not saying this is a very serious movie – I don’t think that is the purpose at all. But it is believable. It is interesting. It is funny and thrilling. What more can you wish for when you sit down to the dark delights of the cinema?

The Magicians - Lev Grossman

Like everyone else, precocious high school senior Quentin Coldwater assumes that magic isn't real, until he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secretive and exclusive college of magic in upstate New York. There he indulges in the joys of college - friendship, love, sex, and booze - and receives a rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery. Magic, though, doesn't bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he thought it would. After graduation, he and his friends stumble upon a secret that sets them on a remarkable journey, sure to finally fulfill Quentin's yearning. But their journey turns out to be darker and more dangerous than they'd imagined.

The Magicians is one of these books that leaves a hole in your life once you’re done – what a friend of mine used to call Post-Book Depression. It is a sort of adult Harry Potter, certainly, but only in a very minor way. There is none of the wonder and black-and-white morality of Harry Potter here. This is a gritty, shades-of-gray universe, where magic doesn’t change the basics of human nature, and the solution to all the world’s problems isn’t at the end of a wand.

The technical aspects of the novel are excellent – the writing is incisive, the characters well developed, the workings and system of magic well thought out and explained. But there is more to the book than just another urban fantasy novel – it is a coming of age, a realistic approach to what would happen if you let loose a bunch of troubled, over-achieving twenty somethings in a very original college, and endowed them all with magical powers. There is the usual love and lust, the loneliness that comes with that part of your life where you aren’t sure where you’re going and the world seems a difficult mess to unravel. There are mistakes and questionings, parties and heavy drinking, and through it all budding friendships and love shot through with sorrow and suffering.

I loved all the references to other literary sources – most obviously C.S. Lewis’ Narnia that is at the origin of Fillory, but also Rowling and LeGuin. But I loved even more that which is particular to this book, and that is clearly the character’s journey. I was simply amazed at how rich, complex, human, are the secondary characters, that seem to leap out of the page with fully formed personalities, flaws and secrets. Quentin takes a little longer to form, reacting to those around him, and the new world he was trust into – and it is through his eyes that we discover this new universe.

I picked this up thinking it was a normal fantasy book, but believe me, it is much, much more. If you haven’t yet, go find it. It isn’t to be missed. And , even though this book is complete on its own - there is an ending, and it is a good ending - a sequel is expected soon and I can’t wait to see where it leads.