The Adjustment Bureau

★★/★★★★

God is named "The Chairman" and angels run around in old-school CIA suits and fedoras making sure everyone's "plan" runs its course. Matt Damon is a senatorial candidate disallusioned by his regimented and pre-ordained lifestyle - it takes statisticians to decide what ties he can wear. Yes, yes politicians are phonies run by a team of experts and handlers, but in The Adjustment Bureau we all share that fate. Free will is a myth and for Damon to be with the girl of his dreams (Emily Blunt) he'll have to divert from his "plan" and take The Bureau head on.

There's some romance, some chases, some mysteries and a whole lot of silly mythology - apparently free will caused the Dark Ages and The Holocaust. Damon and Blunt keep this one afloat with charming chemistry, but writer/director George Nolfi's screenplay is hardly the exploration of predestination, political deceit and corporate omnipresence that he thinks it is. What remains is plenty of cornball romanticism and a myriad of boring plot explanations.