The Adjustment Bureau

SIMPLE choices can have dramatic consequences.
Just getting on a bus could mean you meet someone that changes your life.
But if you miss that bus you might never see that person again.
Some of our most intimate connections with other people are formed purely by chance.
But what if all our ‘choices’ were pre-determined?
That’s the central premise of this intriguing Philip K. Dick story.
Matt Damon plays David Norris who is running for Senate in New York when he meets the feisty Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt).
But David was ‘not meant’ to fall in love with Elise and so the ‘Adjustment Bureau’ sets out to change his fate.
This is where rom com turns sci-fi and to a certain extent it works quite well.
The Adjustment Bureau’s agents are the all-seeing watchmen of the world led by a unnamed and unseen ‘chairman’ (God?)
The Bureau has altered mankind’s path to ensure we avoid destruction after two World Wars, the Holocaust and being on the brink of nuclear war.
But, as you might expect, David chooses free will and fights the odds to find Elise.
Given the impression that the Bureau’s agents are omnipotent, it is quite frustrating then that David and Elise are able to make a fool of them at almost every turn.
But Damon and Blunt almost save the day with great performances and chemistry.
If you can stomach the film’s dreadful and painfully Hollywood-style ending, The Adjustment Bureau has a really interesting concept that will appeal to a wide audience.

Black Swan

PRESSURE and the pursuit of perfection reveal the darker side of the human condition in the intoxicating Black Swan.
Director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem For A Dream) continues in his tradition of making disturbing yet hypnotic films with this story of the competitive world of professional ballet.
On paper it may not sound appealing but this is essentially a psychological horror which builds with fiery intensity.
Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is delighted when she is chosen for the lead role in a production of Swan Lake in New York.
She is told she is perfect as the innocent, fragile White Swan but needs to get in touch with her dark side to also master the Black Swan.

Vincent Cassel is excellent as the seductive, manipulative teacher Thomas Leroy.
It is through his sorded demands, the claustrophobic pressure applied by Nina’s has-been mother and the blood thirsty competition that Nina begins to snap.
Through Aronofsky’s masterful direction, you see Nina’s slow and at first subtle descent into madness as her mind unravels.
Prepare to be haunted as the ‘Black Swan’ begins to take over Nina’s life both on and off the stage and in both the literal and metaphorical sense.
Portman, who was taught to ballet dance when she was four, is excellent as a troubled star who succinctly shows the human toll of ‘perfection’.
Obviously it’s not for everyone and you can’t help but feel sorry for anyone who walked into the cinema expecting a film just about the ballet.
But if you like your films with a real dark edge, some great performances and will leave an impression for days then this is for you.

127 Hours

IN 2003, Aron Ralston was literally stuck between a rock and a hard place.
While hiking in Blue John Canyon in Utah a boulder dislodged, crushing his right arm and pinning him to a canyon wall for more than five days.
Ralston’s amazing story of survival has finally reached the cinemas seven years later with Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle behind the camera.
James Franco, from the Spiderman films, is excellent as experienced adventurer Ralston who heads out to canyon without telling anyone where he is going.
In the film, you get a sense of what a character Ralston before the fateful incident.
He acts as a guide while flirting with two female hikers and sliding into a pool of water.

But then disaster strikes. Boyle, as always, is on top form with the sense of dread and claustrophobia from being trapped translated well on screen.
For much of the rest of the film it is just Ralston - his panic, his fear, his exasperation and finally acceptance of his hopeless situation.
Credit goes to Boyle for making a film work with just one leading role with the gaps filled with flashbacks, delirious daydreams and even Ralston’s premonition that he would become a father - one that came true in February 2010.
Ralston eventually escaped after 127 Hours (which gives the film its name) by amputating his arm with a blunt penknife.
This scene isn’t for the faint-hearted but if you can stomach it, this is a inspirational story of a man’s fight to survive against the odds.