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Could that girl you made out with in the bathroom be “the one”? This is the existential quandary that anchors the George Nolfi Directed thriller The Adjustment Bureau.Matt Damon plays a young congressman named David Norris whois on the fast track to success after overcoming the death of his family.However, when suspect photos from college cost him an election Norris has a chance meeting with a woman he only knows as Elise (played by Emily Blunt)who inspires him to give one of the most important speeches of his political career. The problem is that their meeting wasn’t by chance. A phalanx ofoverseers known as The Adjustment Bureau are charged with guiding hislife—and those of every one else on the planet—and Norris is not playing by the rules. Anthony Mackie stars as an overworked member of the Bureau who literally falls asleep on the job, setting off a chain of events that may change the complexion of the Universe as we know it.

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If that doesn’t grab your interest here are five more reasons you should check it out.

1) The perfect date movie: While there areenough gadgets (an iPad style notebook that maps life itself) and sci-ficues to satisfy the tastes of the average American male, make no mistake

that this is a love story. The lengths that Matt Damon’s Norris goes through to find Elise is unheard of in the age of instant gratification, speed dating and FaceBook poking that passes for courtship. Ironically he even Googles her, but not to find out if she has bad credit. “If you Google Elise you get 757K hits and none of them are you.” Couples are served equal helpings of intensity and emotion.

2) “I can feel the city breathing.”: NY is one of the best supporting characters in any film and the director takes you on a wonderful guided tour of the familiar and not so familiar haunts of The

Big Apple. From Yankee stadium to the back of a taxi, the city that never sleeps is the perfect backdrop for a film that makes you wonder if your life is a choreographed dream.

3) The Bureau: Call them what you want-The Men NOT In Black. Matrix Agents. Ninjas With Hats- but they are the gatekeepers protecting us from a world we can’t see-even if it’s our own. As Harry Mitchell, Anthony Mackie brings some latent sense of humanity to the very cold and calculating suits who take commands from “The Chairman.” At one point Mitchell even warns, “Everyone with a hat is a threat” almost lifting Morpheus’ warning to Neo verbatim. The only thing missing is a kung-fu fight between David Norris and the caliginous “Thompson” (played by Terence Stamp). However, the derivative personality of this corps of soldiers doesn’t detract from our ability to empathize with their mission on some level.

4) Politic Ditto: The charismatic Congressman David Norris is probably the coolest politician on screen since Chris Rock’s Mays Gilliam. Norris is unpredictable but likeable, cut from everyman cloth. During an election concession speech he confesses that his campaign paid a consultant $7300 to determine “if I had the right amount of scuffing on my shoe.” Even if this never happened in real life it’s one of those moments that makes you wish real life candidates were this compelling.

5) Religilosity: What the movie is saying about free will and fate will be the proverbial “splinter in the brain” for this generation of moviegoers. While many will be preoccupied with deciphering

what/who The Adjustment Bureau is and who they work for it’s what they represent that matters more. Evolutionists and religious zealots have argued over who or what created this planet (science or God) without exploring the possibility that it could be both. Who is not to say that the Creator is a scientist with an understanding of our molecules and intentions that could only be comprehended as “magic” by our limited mortal minds? And even if The Chairman has a grand plan, who is to say it cant’ be…adjusted?

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