Admittedly in action movies like The Bourne Identity he handles the physical requirements well and that franchise certainly made the pre-Daniel Craig Bond era look in need of the reboot that was to come with Casino Royale.
But on the whole there is a woodenness and lack of emotion that has made me avoid Damon vehicles. Which makes it all the more interesting that I think his personality and the electric spark between him and female lead, Emily Blunt, makes The Adjustment Bureau stand out as a strong relationship movie.
Damon plays David Norris, a candidate for the US senate. He is being stalked by a shadowy group of men wearing hats, who have the ability to step through any door, say one in Battery Park, and immediately emerge from a different door anywhere else in New York City. They are the people who keep our lives on track, or on “The Plan” as they put it.
One of them is supposed to stop Damon from meeting Blunt on a bus by making him spill his coffee – causing him to go and change his shirt rather than get on the bus. But the intervention fails, Damon meets Blunt and they start to fall in love.
The rest of the film is about the Adjustment Bureau trying to prevent them from being together. This scenario is played out on the streets, on the rooftops and in the underground bowels of the city of New York, and although this is not an action movie, there are some exciting, if not, nail-biting moments.
Sadly part of the narrative is clunky however. You have to ignore Terence Stamp’s ridiculous speech about the Dark Ages and the failings of human beings. The motivations of the “Men in Hats” is not explored deeply enough. And we never really know what the plan is all about and how things would be different if the two leads hadn’t met as was intended. The numerous references the “The Chairman” and the obvious religious connotations are too oblique. And why is man in hat, Harry (well played by Anthony MacKay), so keen to help Damon when the rest of his kind are obeying the orders of the Chairman?
But Emily Blunt’s character, Elsie Sellas, is so alive, attractive, sexy, likeable and vulnerable and the way she and Damon interact is flirtatious, tender, fun and loving that their relationship sweeps aside the inadequacies of the plot. They are so good that you just want them to be together and to overcome the hurdles set in front of them by the shadowy forces.
Right from the moment they first meet you want a happy ending and that makes it worth watching to find out whether your wish is part of “The Plan”.
