“The Adjustment Bureau” could use some adjustments

A few nights ago, Papa Puff and myself watched The Adjustment Bureau. We’d heard great things about it, and we ended up liking it for the most part. Papa Puff had a few complaints about it being anticlimactic or unrealistic in places (even for a sci-fi type movie), but thought it was pretty good overall. My main complaint, though, was more of what it didn’t do.

If you haven’t seen it, this is your spoiler warning. The premise of the movie is that a politician, David, meets a dancer named Elise, and they fall in love. The only problem is that the mysterious force of the Adjustment Bureau is determined to keep them apart. The presence of the Bureau is usually undetectable, but through some unfortuitous circumstances, he discovers its existence. David resists the Bureau’s influence and naturally asks them why their organization is so intent upon keeping them apart. Here’s the kicker: a Bureau member tells David that if he and Elise end up together, their career dreams will never become true.

So this is the big choice, right? David and Elise have a strong connection, but they’ve only met two or three times. The Bureau hints that without Elise, David will become President, and Elise will become a seriously famous dancer and choreographer unless she’s with David. Can David give up the political ambitions he’s framed his life around for Elise? Can he be with her, knowing he’s going to keep her from being successful? Most importantly: Is he going to bother trying to include Elise in making this decision for the two of them?

Answer: No, no, and no. It’s a bit complicated. Instead of choosing between Elise and his political career, David evades making a decision by telling the Bureau to take their ultimatums elsewhere. He doesn’t believe in their power. Fair enough. Except then Elise sprains her ankle while performing, and David starts to think maybe the Bureau was right. It’s love or a career for both of them, so he leaves Elise.

David tells Elise, "They're trying to keep us apart!" and shows her a weird blinking map. Is she supposed to understand that?

Fast forward to a year later, and Elise, as a successful dancer, is engaged to her ex while David is pursuing his political career. A Bureau member approaches David and tells him he was lied to: David and Elise’s love won’t get in the way of their careers. It was just a line because their love didn’t go with the “plan.” (Maybe the Bureau opposes it because it will cause the apocalypse. The audience never finds out.) Questioning the Bureau’s plan, he offers to help David evade the Bureau and find Elise so they can be together. David finds Elise and they declare their love for each other and in the face of such overwhelming dedication to each other, the Chairman of the Bureau decides their love is just so right that the Bureau won’t interfere anymore.

And they live happily ever after.

The big dilemma David faces never really gets addressed. Through the majority of the movie, the plot is essentially David vs. the Bureau. The love-or-career plot is just a hiccup that makes him give up until he finds out his life isn’t necessarily one or the other, which is sad because it’s such an intriguing question. You’ve spent a few hours with someone you think might be your soulmate, but if you have a relationship, both of your careers are ruined. It makes for an interesting comparison to marriage in 20th-century (and even 21st-century) America, in which often women stop working after they marry. What factors into making such a decision? What are the consequences? Traditionally, women were the partners that gave up careers for a relationship, but what happens when a man, like David, is faced with such a choice?

But this discussion doesn’t happen. There’s not even any detail on his decision to leave Elise when she gets hurt. He just walks out after he makes sure she’s okay. We have no internal monologue for him, no idea what’s going on inside his head except what we have to assume: that he chose his and Elise’s careers over their relationship. No reasons why. Nothing about how even though she’s the woman of his dreams, he doesn’t want to keep her from what she wants to do. Nothing about how she’s the only person who makes him feel like he’s not alone, but he’s too focused on his career. It’s a sadly shallow treatment of such a complex situation.

What boggles my mind the most about this theme is that it’s treated as David’s choice, as though Elise’s opinion doesn’t even matter. He never asks Elise what her choice would be. I understand that the whole story of the Bureau might be a bit difficult for her to swallow, but he doesn’t even ask, as a passing remark, whether she could hypothetically sacrifice her career for a relationship, or vice versa. Again, this is probably because this fascinating question is treated as more of a stumbling block than the basis of the plot. Still, in his entire fight against the Bureau, he thinks he’s fighting fate to be with Elise. He never once tells her about the obstacles that are preventing them from being together, nor does he ask her if she would defy their alleged destinies for each other. Through the movie’s portrayal, they’re not a couple who is struggling against fate together. It’s David, fighting to get the prize that is Elise.

It’s a great watch, despite its flaws. The mystery of the Bureau itself, which I hope I haven’t spoiled too much, is intriguing. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have great chemistry. If David hadn’t left Elise in the dark about the whole struggle until they end, they would have had a great relationship. It could have been a deeper, complex piece about priorities in work and relationships, but the movie reaches the smaller goals it’s set for itself: It’s romantic, witty, and exciting. Compared to the average action/thriller or romance, The Adjustment Bureau does fairly well, from my feminist perspective, even if I wanted it to go deeper.

But, we can’t always get what we want, can we?

Wishful thinking,

Cream Puff