Monday, March 28, 2011

The Adjustment Bureau – an 7.5 out of 10 on the Jay Wolin movie rating scale

This movie (based on a short story by Philip Dick) with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt asks the basic questions about free will vs. predestination, and reason vs. intuition. For me the issue of free will is basic. Yet, I can say without question that my life has been full of coincidences and chance meetings with people (often strangers) who have helped me in a particular time of need, or have given me information that was helpful. Originally I considered these coincidences, but over time these events have led me to a more appreciative nature of the interconnectedness of all of existence.

Although the movie posited that humanity on its own would allow our passions to lead us to ruin, it also points out that we create our own destiny, and that intuition can help lead us in the right direction. And the movie’s ultimate point is that we must risk everything for what we believe, even if it does not appear to be the reasonable thing to do. I can only say that for myself, when I have risked everything for what I believed to be true in my heart, is when I have felt whole in my life.

I thought it funny that it depicted angels as upwardly mobile bureaucrats who are afraid to think independently. But it also gave a nod to an old Transcendental Unitarian belief about the afterlife which was that we continue to evolve and grow after death. I thought it was an interesting movie and the trip through the doors was a nice visual trip throughout New York City which is always nice. Definitely a movie worth seeing if you like this sort of movie.