The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau

Something I would not recommend to say as you're going into the cinema with someone is 'Nick I don't think I'm going to like this'. Can make you a little nervous.

Naturally expectations being the game it is, I came out frustrated and she came out pleasantly surprised.

But then she thought she was being taken to see a Bourne rip off and I thought I was going to see a modern Matter of Life and Death.

So first, the Bourne bits. Matt Damon is very good at running. If you've seen a Bourne film you'd know that. But it bears repeating. Most people would look ridiculous but he manages to pull it off. Which is just as well as he does a lot of it.

My worry is that he is the reason why there is so much running. It's a film which is trying to mix a number of things: fantasy, romance, action film and political thriller. And it could probably have succeeded if it had just tried three. I'm just bit sure which three.

Fantasy has to be kept. It's the best bit. There's a wonderful world created of trilbies, transporting through doors and highly bureaucratic angels. It's well conceived, fun and nicely executed. With the exception of the man Damon who can't pull off a trilby at all, everyone looks very snazzy and it gives a great feel to it.

Romance doesn't quite work. I don't really like Emily blunt in it. Partly I don't like her in it, she doesn't quite have the charm. Partly their scenes togetheraren't that well written.
They're not terrible. But not sparkling.

But mostly the problem is that she is a cipher. She doesn't have her own plot. She just is chased first by mr Damon in a nice way and then by the trilbies in a nasty way. Afterwards we were talking about how much more interesting it would be if she was the one who could be a great president and he had to decide whether to risk sacrificing that. Or if her fiancée was actually the person that really mattered and they needed her to support him. And finally they just simply didn't spend enough time together for it to feel right. They needed to have at least spent one night together before he gets too obsessed.

Action: as I said he's very good at running and it gives the film a pace that makes it refreshing given the rest of the subject matter. The director is no Paul greengrass though so while it's fine, it's nothing to write home about.

Political thriller. The first sequence, with him campaigning through to him giving a speech about how everything is focus grouped is really nicely put together. You get the feeling this is one of the bits which the director felt most assured with. And given the amount of
The Democratic party establishment who turn up in the first 10 pages, it's probably the bit he knows best. But they seem to drop it. He's told that they've manipulated his life to make him driven to be President. And that's set up as a bad thing, a cruel piece of social engineering which denies him his chance of happiness. Which is obviously true but I don't think it's considered much of a dilemma. The sense of duty, that the world might need him to be president, is shrugged aside very quickly in a way that I think makes the final decision somewhat unsatisfying.

So I'm not sure what bit i'd drop. I'd just like nearly all of them to be better. It's a great idea and so many details are great and imaginative. But it doesn't quite take the subject matter by the scruff of the neck. It, like so many of my own ideas, doesn't fulfil the promise of the premise. But at least his made a film.

Snog the cat

When you snog some one below your league after having your heart broken by someone above it

It sets off a vicious cycle whereby the person below your league then does the same
Thing to someone below your league.

It started with Brad Pitt and ends with Dave. He doesn't know anyone below him in attractiveness.

Actually no, it's got to be a girl. A highly ugly man who's
Likeable can pull easy. An even vaguely ugly woman who's extremely likeable and impressive finds it much harder.

So she's not looking for someone to be with. She's looking for a cat to snog. And she finds someone but she starts to worry about breaking his heart. And the guy who snogged her cat comes calling again, thinking he may have missed out on something bigger

Born Romantic

Not a self-description (my great discovery of my mid-20s was that I'm not really, i just like Hollywood movies)

It's the name of a bad movie I watched on Monday on the old iplayer. I don't normally review stuff watched at home (I'd just end up getting behind on my reviews again) but I feel like this film is a useful failure from someone trying to do similar things to me.

Those things:

Make London a character like Paris and New York so often are

Be intelligently mainstream and romantic

Look at Londoners as I think of them- in their 20s/30s, mostly from elsewhere originally, not struggling but never going to look right in a Richard Curtis movie


And moreover I suspect it's weaknesses are similar to ones I can see myself making. I'll review it and then pick up on this.

It's got a very weak title sequence with unexciting scenes of that most exciting of dances, Salsa. It then produces its setup of three men pursuing three women all rotating around a salsa club in London. They are shepherded by a ubiquitous and all wise taxi driver played by Adrian lester who somehow manages not to be really annoying, something he deserves great credit for. There's also a poor Greek chorus of misogynistic cabbies which is trite and not worth talking about.

It's a confusing film to watch because I watched it saying to myself that if It wasn't any good I'd turn it off. Then some point after the first act I found myself saying 'this is good' and determined to keep watching it. From then on it was like watching the wheels slowly and safely come off. There was no car crash just the eventual realisation that it's not going to get you there.

So what was good? Catherine McCormack plays a neurotic weirdo who tends graves for those who can't get to them. It's a genuinely interesting idea and I think for the most part she plays her well. Highly highly neurotic but with a warmth and interest in others to go with her vulnerability

They play her off a puppy eyed idiot who steals for not very clear reasons. It's not because he's good at it. It's declared at the end that he's getting off the rush but he doesn't seem to succeed enough for that to be worth it. His one redeeming feature is that he takes care of his dad with alzheimers but he doesn't even seem to do that with much warmth.

And that's a little bit the problem throughout. The girls have very clear flaws in big type: one's neurotic, one's cold and rude and won't let anyone in, one's a massive slut hiding her pain in booze and blokes.

By contrast the flaws with the men are basically that they're not very impressive. One's a thief, one's a failed musician and one I'm not sure but he seems to have had some money now sinking with his ex wife and his decaying house. But the key problem is that they're idiots, obnoxious and apparently all they have to do to change is learn how to salsa.

It seems unequal and this is something I often find to be the case with rom-coms and something i worry might be the case with Advanced Fun.

I'm trying to figure out what Lois's flaws are. She's not very good at letting go, she likes things to be planned. But spontaneity isn't beyond her.

She fails to notice that Mark isn't loving the fun. She doesn't have any feminine intuition. Well certainly not more than Toby.

She's one for distracting from her problems- she thinks she's falling for her flatmate so she goes on a date. She thinks she's lonely so she goes on a quest for fun.

I'm not sure if that's enough. But I do know the flaws have to be the little ones people have, misjudgements, lapses in selfishness not a one liner like in born romantic.