The Adjustment Bureau Part 2
Life can be overwhelming.
One day you are cruising through time with a weightless soul
and a sense of hope in every breath you take and the very next moment your life
can be thrown into total chaos.
Our lives are so fragile and unpredictable that all it takes
to go from perfect inner peace to absolute pandemonium is a 10 second phone
call in the middle of the night or a cryptic text message from someone
you really care about early in the morning.
The ocean is the place I rush to when my life is thrown out
of gear.
It happens to be the one place on earth where I can sit for
a while and switch off all the noise going on in my head.
The salty breeze, the massive expanse of the water flowing
on an off the shore, all so close,yet so far, the realization that in spite
of being just a tiny little being on such a huge planet I am able to take it
all in brings a sort of peace that I have seldom if rarely ever experienced
elsewhere.
A considerable amount of time in our lives is spent on
making decisions.
Some of them are too small to notice, routine, like the
clothes you chose to wear this morning or the food you ordered for lunch.
Some others are a slightly more significant, but with a
little planning and research we arrive at rational solution such as choosing a
destination for a family vacation or the place you intend to pursue your higher
studies.
Then there are those set of decisions that come along every
once in a while that can be life changing.
Before you know it, or even have enough time to think about
it you are in swept over by a situation where one decision can change your
entire life.
It’s just like the waves on the beach.
Some of them barely touch your feet, some reach up to your
knees, but when you least expect it a large wave powerful enough to draw you into
the sea comes along.
How do you decide then if what you want is to stay on shore,
the place that you are familiar with, or go with the flow of the ocean not
really knowing where it’s going to lead you fully aware that you are about to
let go of the world you are leaving behind with the possibility of never seeing
it again.
On screen chemistry is something that can carry the weight
of an entire movie on its shoulder, take for example the movies starring Meg
Ryan and Tom Hanks or SRK and Kajol.
When I learnt that Matt Damon and Emily Blunt were paired
together in a film called ‘The Adjustment Bureau’, I had my own reservations.
But, contrary to all my expectations their palpable
chemistry blew me away.
The movie has a very interesting premise.
In the backdrop of a love story the plot basically revolves
round the concept of destiny.
Are any of these decisions that I talked about earlier in any way under our control?
Is your future and mine already decided?
And if it is so, is it possible for us to alter or change
our pre determined destinies?
These are some of the themes director/screenwriter George
Nolfi explores in the film that is not only intriguing but also very
entertaining.
David Norris (Matt) is a promising young politician who has
just lost his first senate election.
While rehearsing his concession speech he meets Elise
(Blunt) a professional dancer with a vivacious personality, and sparks fly
instantaneously.
In spite of all of David’s attempts to stay with Elise he is
constantly hindered by things that keep going out of his control, things hard
to explain by mere coincidence, almost as if there was a force in the world
doing all it can to keep the two of them apart.
He incidentally discovers the existence of ‘The Adjustment
Bureau’ a covert supernatural organization tasked with the responsibility of
keeping the world from destroying itself. It is made very clear to David that
he is not meant to be with Elise according to the plan that was decided upon
even before he was born, and that being with her would not only the end of their individual professional pursuits and dreams with ramifications
that could affect the whole world.
David lets go of Elise even though it hurts him incredibly,
and unaware of the existence of the bureau Elise is led to believe that David
leaves her on purpose.
A few years go by she flourishes in her career and David is
on track to winning the next senate election.
A member of the bureau on Dave’s case feels guilty about
keeping the two of them apart, so he reveals to David one day that Elise is engaged
to someone else and about to get married.
David has 2 choices now.
Let her go, and allow their lives to proceed according to
plan, or, reveal to her about the existence of the bureau, risk losing his
memory and destroy not only his life but also the future of the woman he loves.
Guess what David does?
He goes after Elise.
She obviously is mad at him because every time she thinks
her life is on track Mr. Charming appears out of nowhere, throws everything out
of gear and disappears.
Her anger turns into total bewilderment when he tries telling
her that the reason he kept himself away all these years was because of the
adjustment bureau.
He has a plan but it entails having to leave immediately.
David’s hurried explanation isn’t good enough to convince
anybody, let alone the woman he has disappointed time and again, but he holds
his hand out, and asks her if she is willing to believe in him again and take a
leap of faith.
Does Elise take the jump, do they out run the bureau, do
they ultimately manage to change the plans that were already made for them, and
if so, how?
I don’t know how the world keeps itself from imploding in spite
of everything that goes on here on earth, maybe there is an adjustment bureau
out there keeping everything and everyone in check.
Maybe when you spill some coffee and bow your head to wipe
your shirt, you are being kept from seeing something that may change your life,
maybe the few seconds I spent stooping down to tie my shoe lace a month ago was
the universe’s way of bringing me to one of those moments when everything comes
together to make something special happen.
It is possible that every single thing that we do, day in
and day out has a purpose and meaning attached to it, the repercussions of our
actions are not always evident immediately but eventually I guess we realize
that things went exactly how they were supposed to.
The real question is this, what if your goals, or dreams and
hopes are not in line with what was already decided for you?
I now understand that if what you seek is pure and honest,
and you are willing to put everything on the line to get it, even the universe
will change its plans to fit yours in.
If your plan involves being with another person you deeply
love, just make sure that when you hold your hand out asking them to trust in
you, they will grab on to it no matter what.
Until next time
TGV
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