The Adjustment Bureau is a film that, at once, acknowledges that such a thing could exist, but it counters that motivated, determined and lovelorn individuals could flout its hold on our existence. In that sense, the love that prompts actionNorris catches the same bus for years in order to find Elise againis the key figure of the film, not the bureau of the title. The bureau slowly melts into the backgroundno longer what the film is really exploring but a kind of ambient working environment, a fact of life to be learned and adjusted to, in turn. The rugged romantic trumps the conspiracy. Norris is aided by an adjustment bureau worker turned goodthe bureaucrat with the heart of gold. In this, it recalls The Lives of Others, another film where the formal rules of rational bureaucracy are defied by an operator who comes to respect his nominal tar proactol get.So, in the end, what makes the film enjoyable is the on-screen chemistry between Damon and Blunt. It’s easy to imagine that it was an intuitive sense of this at the time of production that gave the romance story an upper hand. Damon and Blunt give good performances when together, particularly in the early, flirtatious scenes where things feel nicely improvised. They’re also fine in the individual roles, but the sparks are mostly there in their flirting: this is as the story would have it, where the artistic Blunt’s wit and unpredictability opens up something warmer in Norris, the political machine man. It’s universally recognisable fare: love lost, love found, free will, fate. The film meanders between its two styles and sets of concerns, but it adds up to a solid piece of cinema entertainment with a few brain-tweaking moments of paranoia.