The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

All Critics (244) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (177) | Rotten (67) | DVD (7)

Accomplished filmmaking that features two highly attractive, talented leads, a healthy dose of sentiment, an intelligent script, and which takes you away for two hours from the quotidian worries and banalities of your regular life.

October 7, 2011 Full Review

Leah Rozen

The Wrap

Top Critic

This mind-meld of sci-fi thriller, morality play and passionate romance is worth seeing, mostly for the palpable chemistry between the lead actors.

April 4, 2011 Full Review

Claudia Puig

USA Today

Top Critic

Damon and Blunt give such terrific performances you might almost forgive the movie's dopey ending.

March 19, 2011 Full Review | Comments (24)

Rafer Guzman

Newsday

Top Critic

The on-screen pairing of Matt Damon and Emily Blunt is so winning that you may be willing to overlook the oddly modulating tone of the story that brings them together and then tries to keep them apart.

March 9, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Bill Goodykoontz

Arizona Republic

Top Critic

Fans looking for something a little different will find it here - as well as the first real romance of the year.

March 4, 2011 Full Review | Comments (4)

Stephen Whitty

Newark Star-Ledger

Top Critic

Cradled in Damon's solidly reliable hands, even a movie as extravagantly silly as this one gains heft and credibility, an impressive accomplishment when you consider that the entire plot revolves around magic notebooks and spellbinding hats.

March 4, 2011 Full Review | Comments (10)

Jeannette Catsoulis

NPR

Top Critic

Romantic and intellectually stimulating, and like "Inception," it may have you arguing with your date on the ride home.

January 15, 2013 Full Review

Roger Moore

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

The Adjustment Bureau does sadly descend into science-fiction nonsense after a bold start, but it's always enjoyable and you never lose sight of what's at stake thanks to excellent character work from Damon and Blunt.

September 28, 2012 Full Review

Ali Gray

TheShiznit.co.uk

It's rare when a film is able to blend together two different genres so well, especially when they are two genres that you don't normally see together, in this case, science-fiction and romance.

September 21, 2012 Full Review

Jeff Beck

Examiner.com

There are plenty of great ideas throughout the film with determinism and the idea of free will all given some interesting twists, though it is sometimes muddled and preachy

November 19, 2011 Full Review

Laurence Boyce

The Sabotage Times

I kept expecting Rod Serling to step into the frame, cigarette in hand, setting the stage for the bizarre turn of events about to befall the young pol and the lovestruck ballerina.

September 9, 2011 Full Review

Neil Pond

American Profile

...if our current president got elected after admitting to having used cocaine in the past do you really think mooning someone in college would cause someone not to vote for him?

August 16, 2011 Full Review

Michael A. Smith

MediaMikes

The fact that The Adjustment Bureau asks deeper questions is admirable, and it does so about an onscreen couple actually worth caring about.

August 16, 2011 Full Review

Andrew Simpson

Fan The Fire

A bit muddled through the middle third and a Hollywood-like ending make for a good, though not a brilliant film.

August 15, 2011 Full Review

Wesley Lovell

Cinema Sight

Eventually the whole thing feels a little too silly to be able to take any of its inherent concerns meaningfully.

July 26, 2011 Full Review

Jeffrey Chen

Window to the Movies

What's intriguing is that this is essentially a sweet love story coated in a layer of Phillip K Dick.

June 28, 2011 Full Review

Matt Neal

The Standard

The Bureau's dictat is certainly a blow to the notion, held by a few lunatics, that there's nothing more important in life than being happy. Apparently it's more important to be ambitious and attain some sort of status.

June 28, 2011 Full Review | Comments (3)

Ed Whitfield

The Ooh Tray

Too bad the film doesn't have anything else to offer besides the chemistry between the photogenic leads, the handsome location shooting and the usual bromides ...

June 27, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Sean Axmaker

MSN.com

The Adjustment Bureau offers an interesting sci-fi premise that will intrigue in its metaphysical nature, yet that intrigue is not repaid as the move becomes a glossy, effects-driven love story.

June 25, 2011 Full Review

Mike Barnard

Future Movies UK

Nolfi and his colleagues make especially good use of New York, filming everywhere from the Brooklyn waterfront to the lobby of the Museum of Modern Art. It's a fresh look at a familiar city. But Nolfi drops the ball in the home stretch, and that's...

June 23, 2011 Full Review

Leonard Maltin

indieWIRE

... in the long list of films translating and transforming the stories of the ubiquitous Philip K. Dick, this falls in the 'Watchable but Disappointing' category.

June 15, 2011 Full Review

Jeffrey Overstreet

Looking Closer

Paranoia never looked so good.

May 27, 2011 Full Review

Grae Drake

Movies.com

Uma narrativa intrigante, tensa e romântica que mantém o espectador interessado durante a maior parte da projeção.

May 13, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Pablo Villaca

Cinema em Cena

If you can buy into the sci-fi angle, this rom-action is smart and brisk enough to stand above similarly-themed films--helped tremendously by the chemistry of its stars.

May 12, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Bruce Bennett

Spectrum (St. George, Utah)

... more hearts-aflutter romance than nuts-and-bolts sci-fi.

May 4, 2011 Full Review

Glenn Lovell

CinemaDope

• 1. David Norris: What ever happened to free will?
  2. Thompson: We actually tried free will before. After taking you from hunting and gathering to the height of the Roman Empire, we stepped back to see how you'd do on your own. You gave us the Dark Ages for five centuries... until finally we decided we should come back in. The Chairman thought maybe we just needed to do a better job of teaching you how to ride a bike before taking the training wheels off again. So we gave you the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution. For six hundred years we taught you to control your impulses with reason, then in 1910 we stepped back. Within fifty years, you'd brought us World War I, the Depression, Fascism, the Holocaust and capped it off by bringing the entire planet to the brink of destruction in the Cuban Missile Crisis. At that point a decision was taken to step back in again before you did something that even we couldn't fix. You don't have free will, David. You have the appearance of free will.
  – Submitted by Typhon Q (4 months ago)
• 1. Harry Mitchell: Most people live life on the path we set for them. Too afraid to explore any other. But once in a while people like you come along and knock down all the obstacles we put in your way. People who realize free will is a gift, you'll never know how to use until you fight for it.
  – Submitted by Maricris P (18 months ago)
• 1. David Norris: Look, whatever happens, I'm not gonna let anything come between us again.
  – Submitted by Hanna K (19 months ago)
• 1. Harry Mitchell: You're entire world has turned upside down and you're thinkin' about a woman.
  – Submitted by Hanna K (19 months ago)
• 1. Thompson: You don't have free will, David. You have the appearance of free will.
  – Submitted by Nastassia J (20 months ago)
• 1. David Norris: [laughing] It's a new phone.
  – Submitted by Joris G (22 months ago)

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