'The Adjustment Bureau' – Trailer preview

We're excited by this noirish sci-fi thriller with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. Let's hope 'Inception' doesn't steal its thunder

So, it turns out the world is being controlled by a shadowy cadre of creepy old white guys who have the ability to freeze time and rearrange everything as they see fit. But there’s this square-jawed ’40s-style hero who’s seen through their scheme, and he’s willing to fight to the death to protect the woman he loves and uncover the real truth behind these men and their dastardly plot… Yes, Alex Proyas’s ‘Dark City’ is a great movie.

Though to be fair, the Philip K Dick short story on which ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ is based existed long before Proyas’s sadistic sci-fi skincrawler from 1997, so the makers of this latest twist on the old evil-dudes-are-controlling-the-world chestnut can’t be accused of plagiarism.

And there are plenty of other reasons, beyond the PKD connection, to be pretty excited about ‘The Adjustment Bureau’. Matt Damon has a solid track record when it comes to mainstream actioners, as borne out by the Bourne movies (and the screenwriter of the third Bourne, ‘Ultimatum’, makes his directorial debut here). Emily Blunt may be yet to prove her leading-lady credentials, but she looks more comfortable here than in, say, ‘The Wolfman’. And any film which casts Terence Stamp alongside Roger Stirling from ‘Mad Men’ as shady global masterminds must have a bit going on upstairs.



But the big worry for the producers will be the imminent release of Chris Nolan’s ‘Inception’, another dystopian drama with similarly crisp photography, conspiratorial undertones and chiselled matinee frontmen in old fashioned hats. If ‘Inception’ flies, the knock-on could either hurt or hinder ‘The Adjustment Bureau’, depending on its eventual quality. And if ‘Inception’ sinks, who’s going to want more of the same?

Either way, this looks to us like good old Hitchcockian fun. But what do you think?

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