I'm just going to come right out and say it: for a movie star, Matt Damon has made a lot of crap. The Adjustment Bureau isn't the worst of his career, but it's not great either.

I didn't read the original short story from Philip K Dick, but from writer-director George Nolfi, The Adjustment Bureau is a parable about how we basically kill each others' dreams when we fall in love and settle down.

If Damon's character David Norris falls in love with Blunt's Elise, he'll never become president and she'll never make a world-class dancer. I suppose there are other ways you can interpret this dilemma, but the idea that its a parable for what we sacrifice when potential love and romance inevitably becomes banal in its quotidian reality, to me, is the most interesting thing about the film.

It could also be said (and, in fact, one of the angelic characters says it) that by being with the one you love, your ambitions dry up. Why aspire to greatness when you have the woman or man of your dreams?

Other heady concepts appear in the film, but they're ultimately undeveloped. Characters run roughshod over the age-old debate of free will versus determinism. And the idea that there's a "substrate" universe the angelic G-men can access through certain doors while wearing fedora hats... well, it's cute more than anything.

Can we talk about Emily Blunt for a minute? Man she is just a stone cold fox in this movie. The first scene between her and David in the bathroom, and he's just stunned by her appeal, and her genial nature and wit -- and the fact that she seems into him -- that's the best part of the movie. And one of the most believable, given how flabbergasted he seems that this gorgeous woman, approachable and bright and sincere and funny, could seem to be attracted to him, a kind of pug-nosed frat dude in a suit.

And then they kiss, and it feels believable even though it's sudden -- after all, she was just at a wedding and probably had a few drinks.

After that it's all hijinks and plot holes, but not so terrible you want to stop watching. Oh, last thing -- the politics. What innocent times back in 2011, huh? Imagine the vitriol today about a movie that has a celestial "bureau" pulling the strings to get a senator into the oval office. I mean, my God. While the film doesn't outright call him a Democrat, there's some stuff about solar panels, and his favorite color is blue... wink wink, he's a New York Democrat, a working class kid from Brooklyn.

Anyway, a good way to spend a couple of hours if you've got nothing else going. See you down the road.

In New York, the prominent politician David Norris (Matt Damon) is disputing the election for the Senate but his past of bad boy makes him lose the election. He meets the stranger Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt) hidden in the Waldorf's toilet and she tells that she had crashed a party and the security guards are chasing her. They start a conversation and they immediately fall in love with each other. However the guards find her and David does not see her again. However she inspires him to make a remarkable speech.

One day, David is traveling by bus and he meets Elise again. She gives her phone number to him and David promises to call her. However, strangers wearing hats approach to David and tell that they belong to the Adjustment Bureau and Elise and David must be kept apart. They destroy the piece of paper with her phone number and David is unable to contact Elise. Three years later, David sees Elise walking on the sidewalk. He gets out of the bus to meet her and he learns that she is a dancer. But the strangers use their abilities to keep them apart. What is the reason why David and Elise can not be together?

"The Adjustment Bureau" is a romantic and suspenseful sci-fi based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, the writer of "Blade Runner", "Total Recall", "Impostor", "Minority Report", "Paycheck", "A Scanner Darkly" and "Next", among other sci-fi films. The intriguing story is ambiguous; the chemistry between Matt Damon and Emily Blunt is wonderful; and it is always great to see Terence Stamp. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Os Agentes do Destino" ("The Agents of Destiny")

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU is a modern-day sci-fi thriller based on a short story by one of Hollywood's favoured genre writers, Philip K. Dick. It shows plenty of potential and promise in a plot that's novel and fresh-feeling, but come the end you get the impression it's entirely lightweight and curiously insubstantial.

Writer/director George Nolfi crafts a story with undertones of the excellent DARK CITY in look and style as aspiring politician Matt Damon discovers mysterious forces governing his world. Unfortunately, despite the hugely extensive back story behind this fare, what it boils down to is a simple will they/won't they love story between Damon and the alluring Emily Blunt.

This development makes the repeated attempts at danger and suspense feel faintly ridiculous. I mean, would all the antagonistic characters - John Slattery, Terence Stamp, et al - really go to this level of trouble for something so, well, unimportant in the scheme of things? When the stakes are so low, the viewer just doesn't care.

There are good things in this: a solid turn (again) from Damon as a likable everyman hero for a change, well-handled direction and a lovely turn from the absolutely ravishing Blunt, but the attempts to meld old-fashioned thriller aspects with the romantic storyline just doesn't sit very well with me.