In New York, the prominent politician David Norris (Matt Damon) is disputing the election for the Senate but his past of bad boy makes him lose the election. He meets the stranger Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt) hidden in the Waldorf's toilet and she tells that she had crashed a party and the security guards are chasing her. They start a conversation and they immediately fall in love with each other. However the guards find her and David does not see her again. However she inspires him to make a remarkable speech.

One day, David is traveling by bus and he meets Elise again. She gives her phone number to him and David promises to call her. However, strangers wearing hats approach to David and tell that they belong to the Adjustment Bureau and Elise and David must be kept apart. They destroy the piece of paper with her phone number and David is unable to contact Elise. Three years later, David sees Elise walking on the sidewalk. He gets out of the bus to meet her and he learns that she is a dancer. But the strangers use their abilities to keep them apart. What is the reason why David and Elise can not be together?

"The Adjustment Bureau" is a romantic and suspenseful sci-fi based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, the writer of "Blade Runner", "Total Recall", "Impostor", "Minority Report", "Paycheck", "A Scanner Darkly" and "Next", among other sci-fi films. The intriguing story is ambiguous; the chemistry between Matt Damon and Emily Blunt is wonderful; and it is always great to see Terence Stamp. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Os Agentes do Destino" ("The Agents of Destiny")

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU is a modern-day sci-fi thriller based on a short story by one of Hollywood's favoured genre writers, Philip K. Dick. It shows plenty of potential and promise in a plot that's novel and fresh-feeling, but come the end you get the impression it's entirely lightweight and curiously insubstantial.

Writer/director George Nolfi crafts a story with undertones of the excellent DARK CITY in look and style as aspiring politician Matt Damon discovers mysterious forces governing his world. Unfortunately, despite the hugely extensive back story behind this fare, what it boils down to is a simple will they/won't they love story between Damon and the alluring Emily Blunt.

This development makes the repeated attempts at danger and suspense feel faintly ridiculous. I mean, would all the antagonistic characters - John Slattery, Terence Stamp, et al - really go to this level of trouble for something so, well, unimportant in the scheme of things? When the stakes are so low, the viewer just doesn't care.

There are good things in this: a solid turn (again) from Damon as a likable everyman hero for a change, well-handled direction and a lovely turn from the absolutely ravishing Blunt, but the attempts to meld old-fashioned thriller aspects with the romantic storyline just doesn't sit very well with me.

The fascinating premise, that there are some talented actors on board and the generally positive word of mouth were my reasons for seeing 'The Adjustment Bureau'. Seeing it, there are no regrets watching it but at the same time it was a little frustrating. It is an interesting and decent film, but had real potential to be a great one and could have been much more.

Matt Damon is a charismatic presence and commands the film with ease without ever trying too hard. Emily Blunt has a genuine winning charm as one often finds with Blunt, her character is not quite as interesting as Damon's but Blunt makes it work. The two have great chemistry together, it really sparkles. In fact it is the romance that comes off the best and most consistently, being where 'The Adjustment Bureau' really comes alive. Anthony Mackie is suitably mysterious while also quite likable in the film's latter stages.

John Slattery really looks the part and has a lot of fun in a suitably shady role while Terence Stamp brings some sinister dignity and authority to a rather severely underwritten character that appears in the film too late somewhat. On the acting front, 'The Adjustment Bureau' is very good.

As it is too with the way it's made, suitably gritty and slick with some inventive moments and an audacious style. The locations are chosen well and used cleverly. The music score has a good mix of understatement and thrilling pulsation. The first half has a lot of very interesting and smart ideas that leaves one gripped enough to carry on and see further how it goes and there is a good deal of fun and a few suspenseful jolts to be had.

For all those great things, 'The Adjustment Bureau' would have been an even better film if it had done more with the premise. The romance is the most well done and memorable element of it and the rest doesn't live up. It's intriguing and entertaining, but the second half suffers from playing it too safe and having too many ideas needing to be tied up, meaning that potentially great ideas are not fully expanded upon (even the whole basic premise doesn't feel fully cooked).

Pacing does get stodgy, as a result of the lack of risk-taking and struggles with keeping things probable and consistent. Despite the conflict being well performed the threat feels lacking because it is handled in a way that's under-cooked and somewhat repetitive which dilutes the suspense quite badly. The more under-explored 'The Adjustment Bureau' gets, the more confusing, tonally muddled and far-fetched it gets too. This is especially true with the ending, which to me is down there with the decade's "what the heck" film endings.

Overall, has a lot to recommend but there was a lot more to the film that never fully emerged. 6/10 Bethany Cox