THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU

Written and Directed by George Nolfi

Starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, Jack Slattery and Terence Stamp

David Norris: If I'm not supposed to be with her, why do I feel this way?

If you knew that being with you meant that the person you love would never realize his or her dreams, would you walk away from them? If you wanted to, would you even be capable? As interesting a question as it is, it is the kind of question that hardly anything good can come from. If you want to stay, you’re selfish. If you want to go, then you don’t think love matters as much as success does. Regardless of your decision, you won’t be happy either way, but I suppose it got you thinking and that alone has its own value these days. Take that question and throw it into the central story of a movie though and you might have yourself with a pretty compelling drama. Or you might find yourself fully dismayed and just watching THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU.

Matt Damon, whose film choices as of late have all fell flat for me, plays David Norris, the youngest Congressman in American history, in George Nolfi’s directorial debut. Nolfi and Damon last worked together on THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, which Nolfi wrote and Damon starred in. Sadly, their relationship did not end there and, if I am meant to take anything away from their latest collaboration, it would be that it was obviously not meant to. The men who work at this particular bureau all wear snazzy hats and sharp suits but they might as well be wearing sparkly fairy dresses covered in pixie dust, given what their jobs are. These men, who may or may not in fact be angels, are making sure every day that the plan in place for every person on the planet is carried out properly. To do this, they must meddle with humanity as inconspicuously as possible. These are the guys who hide your keys in the morning or spill coffee on your clean shirt so that you leave the house five minutes later and either miss or catch the moment you were intended to. And see, I always thought that was the work of garden gnomes.

Damon meets Emily Blunt’s Elise in a bathroom. The seemingly chance encounter was not at all what it seemed and the two hit it off splendidly. Suddenly though, she must flee, and unlike Cinderella, she leaves neither her name nor her slipper behind. That was supposed to be the end of it, or at least according to the plan it was. The kiss they shared was too good to be forgotten though and neither can get the other out of their heads. The bureau simply cannot have this; it is not in the plan. And so the men in suits and hats do everything in their power to keep these two lovebirds apart. They point their fingers at peoples’ phones and messages appear or they flash a look in another direction and cabs go off duty. I half expected them to start wiggling their noses and disappearing in clouds of smoke at one point. They do all this to prevent Damon and Blunt from having a moment that might lead to a kiss, for a real kiss could alter their universes forever. As laughable and trivial as that sounds, it actually happens in the movie.

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU clearly wants to come off as cool but really only comes off as trying too hard. Nolfi’s direction is sorely uneven but with such a weak script, it could not have been easy to make the actors sound convincing. Granted, he wrote the script as well so blaming the writer is just more blame on him. Nolfi strives to get the viewer lost in the perilous divide between fate and chance, all the while trying to figure where free will fits in to the mix. All he does is pose the question though without drawing any actual conclusions. If we actually have free will, I suggest you exercise it and avoid this movie. If our fates are already decided though, I hope you, like me, were not just meant to suffer through this movie.

THE WOLFMAN

Written by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self
Directed by Joe Johnston
Starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving


Sir John Talbot: Never look back, son. The past is a wilderness of horror.

Theoretically, I would welcome any monster movie these days that wasn’t about vampires and that also wasn’t geared towards teenage girls. When that alternative is THE WOLFMAN though, a remake of the 1941 George Waggner film, I find myself longing to have every drop of blood sucked from my body instead.


THE WOLFMAN is a bit of a pet project (pun as fully intended as the moon that brings out the beast) for star, Benicio Del Toro, as he also serves as co-producer. I suppose he saw the appeal as a potential blockbuster that would make the Oscar winner more of a household name. The possibility was certainly there but he also should have considered whether a decent script was there as well. Del Toro plays Lawrence Talbot, a British-born, successful actor (I can hardly buy Del Toro as American, let alone a British-born American), who was exiled to the United States as a child by his father after a particularly traumatic family tragedy. He has only returned home now because his brother has gone missing.

The search for his brother leads Lawrence and the rest of this small, late 19th-century town to the discovery of The Wolfman. That discovery leads to Lawrence being bit by the beast and subsequently succumbing to the curse that comes with. The townsfolk are baffled by the atrocities inflicted by the beast upon the innocents because they have never seen anything like this before. This makes sense to me. What doesn’t is how they all seem to be familiar with Wolfman lore, like how silver bullets are required to kill him or how he only comes out when the moon is full. If this is where the legend begins, how would they even stumble upon these conclusions, let alone know them outright?


Man and beast and the differences or lack thereof between the two is a central Wolfman theme. Modernizing the tale though does not bring any new insight on the pairing. In fact, it almost seems too simplistic to still be considered revealing about human nature. Yes, man continues to struggle with its own animal instincts but these primal urges are all for show in THE WOLFMAN. The tale was clearly only updated to present it with visual effects that would do the gore justice rather than reinvigorate it with relevance. And as there aren’t that many fight sequences (waiting for lunar cycles to pass before seeing the title character reappear does not make for a great deal of suspense), even that purpose seems like an after thought.

Watching THE WOLFMAN means watching a lot more than just innocent people dying gruesome deaths on screen; it also means watching the combined talent of the ensemble cast being torn to shreds. Anthony Hopkins, as Lawrence’s father, is a kooky old man who has lost his own plot, let alone the even thinner plot of this film. Emily Blunt is as lovely as always but reduced to nonsensical character development. And Del Toro, aside from his baffling accent, is never strong enough to be considered manly or fierce enough to be seen as beastly. Fortunately, Hugo Weaving is on hand as the inspector assigned to the case. Weaving brings that special brand of bland that, if we’re all very lucky and this film does find a sizable audience, we will all get to see again in the sequel.


I have not seen the original so I cannot fairly compare but I can say that I expect THE WOLFMAN to be about raw aggression that cannot help but be let out on an unsuspecting public. Director, Joe Johnston’s take is decidedly different, focusing more on daddy issues and about finding the right woman to tame the beast. With such insipid back story, I’d say the beast in question has already been domesticated.

Best of Black Sheep: THE YOUNG VICTORIA

Written by Julian Fellowes
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee
Starring Emily Blunt, Ruper Friend, Paul Bettany and Miranda Richardson


Period pieces about royalty can often play out like chess games. The board is set as it always is with elaborately costumed pieces and these pieces are moved one by one into battle. Each piece moves in a specific fashion that is dictated by the rules of the game and cannot deviate from that plan. Experienced players know how to make this quiet game exciting while others move the pieces in predictable fashions toward an end that cannot come sooner. Sadly, Jean-Marc Vallee’s The Young Victoria is so conventional that he even has his young queen, played by Emily Blunt, playing an uneventful game of chess at one point. I swear, I thought up the metaphor before that though.


After delivering an incredible debut, C.R.A.Z.Y., in 2005, Vallee caught the attention of the international film scene. How else could he snag talent like Blunt or more importantly, executive producers like Martin Scorsese or Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York? What he put together though never rises above the level of functional. Victoria is a naïve but determined monarch. Naturally, every one around her, with either political or royal ties, wants to take advantage of her lack of experience. Victoria must reach into the crowd of hands constantly grabbing at her to take the one that she can trust. She can’t seem to figure out which one that is but it was pretty obvious from where I was sitting.


Blunt, who actually skips here and there to remind us that she really is a very young queen, does what she can with the part but to her detriment, screenwriter, Julian Fellowes, gives her very little to develop. Dress her up as fancy as you like, we’ve all seen this before and The Young Victoria becomes a reminder that Vallee is pretty young himself when it comes to directing.

Black Sheep TIFF Review: THE YOUNG VICTORIA

Period pieces about royalty can often play out like chess games. The board is set as it always is with elaborately costumed pieces and these pieces are moved one by one into battle. Each piece moves in a specific fashion that is dictated by the rules of the game and cannot deviate from that plan. Experienced players know how to make this quiet game exciting while others move the pieces in predictable fashions toward an end that cannot come sooner. Sadly, Jean-Marc Vallee’s The Young Victoria is so conventional that he even has his young queen, played by Emily Blunt, playing an uneventful game of chess at one point. I swear, I thought up the metaphor before that though.


After delivering an incredible debut, C.R.A.Z.Y., in 2005, Vallee caught the attention of the international film scene. How else could he snag talent like Blunt or more importantly, executive producers like Martin Scorsese or Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York? What he put together though never rises above the level of functional. Victoria is a naïve but determined monarch. Naturally, every one around her, with either political or royal ties, wants to take advantage of her lack of experience. Victoria must reach into the crowd of hands constantly grabbing at her to take the one that she can trust. She can’t seem to figure out which one that is but it was pretty obvious from where I was sitting.


Blunt, who actually skips here and there to remind us that she really is a very young queen, does what she can with the part but to her detriment, screenwriter, Julian Fellowes, gives her very little to develop. Dress her up as fancy as you like, we’ve all seen this before and The Young Victoria becomes a reminder that Vallee is pretty young himself when it comes to directing.

SUNSHINE CLEANING

Written by Megan Holley
Directed by Christine Jeffs
Starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn, Clifton Collins Jr. and Alan Arkin


Rose Lorkowski: Do you think all I can do is clean up other people’s shit?

When some lonely soul walks into a sporting goods store and blows his brains out all over the ceiling with a 20-gage shotgun from behind the counter, someone has got to come in and clean up that mess. Not only would it deter potential shoppers to find leftover bits of brain mass mixed in with the fishing poles but, more importantly, the violence that ripped through the fabric of everyday life needs to be cleaned from memory in order to return to our blissful existences. Enter Rose and Norah Lorkowski (Amy Adams and Emily Blunt), two sisters who reasonably could be a few steps away from the same fate as the man with the shotgun if they got to seriously thinking about their lives. Despite their troubles, the two have paired up to clean up the messes no one else wants to touch. What they lack in style, they make up with smiles as the two try to find life by facing death head on in SUNSHINE CLEANING.


The people who brought you LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE have brought you back to Albuquerque, New Mexico. They also tried to bring back that signature quirk you enjoyed so much last time, even going so far as to cast Alan Arkin in the role of a loud, unconventional grandfather. While they may not have succeeded in recreating that same kind of wide satisfaction, they have crafted a sensitive film that will definitely speak to the millions struggling in America today to forge their own path and bring some semblance of meaning to their lives. When we meet Rose, she is cleaning people’s houses just so she can afford her dilapidated little house. Her sister Norah can’t even be bothered to get out of bed to show up for her pointless waitress job. These are not girls with hope but they find very quickly that hope can come back into your life faster than you would expect and even when after you’ve given up on it.


As far as sisters go, Adams and Blunt are a pretty believable pair. You can tell they care about each other but you know that they also infuriate each other too. Adams’ mousy and unobtrusive demeanor gives Rose, a former prom queen whose popularity has been waning ever since, the delicate balance of hope and resigned defeat necessary to make her sympathetic and likable. You just know that when she exits the shower to repeat the affirmations written on a post-it stuck to her foggy mirror that she only half believes what she’s saying, if that. Blunt on the other hand is not looking for anyone’s acceptance, not even her own. She makes good on her own name and delivers Norah with a direct frankness that reveals more than she realizes. For Norah, hope is not something she tries to force into her life; no, hope for Norah, just finds her and sneaks its own way into her consciousness.


SUNSHINE CLEANING definitely brings the sunshine in but it does so in such a downtrodden fashion that it makes it all the more meaningful to catch a glimpse and easy to ignore the clouds in the sky. It is a healing experience that never feels as though it is forcing its cleansing on the audience or itself. Instead, the sisters just feel compelled to clean because their lives have been dirty for far too long. What they find beneath the grime is an unexpected and infectious grin.