There really isn’t anything more I have to say about The Adjustment Bureau than I have already said since its release back in early March. First time director George Nolfi (co-writer of The Bourne Ultimatum) has crafted a fun, Hitchcockian sci-fi-romance-thriller that is an absolute joy to watch, primarily due to the chemistry between stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt and a fun, yet slightly absurd story that takes itself just serious enough to believe the romance, but not so much that you care or even notice potential plot holes.
The fact this film was delayed for so long worried me going in, but after loving it in the theater I was happy to sit back and watch it again on Blu-ray and realize it hasn’t lost any of its luster. If you want more of my opinion on the film itself you can read my theatrical review right here. I still stand by it 100%.
The features, however, aren’t necessarily all that impressive, but that typically seems to be the case with first time studio releases, though the commentary from Nolfi is quite enjoyable, primarily because he’s a first time director giving you an insight into some of his decision making. You’ll also learn a few nuggets regarding the production such as who Nolfi was hinting at being the Chairman and the fact Emily Blunt trained for three months for the dance scenes though they did use face replacement for some of the more difficult moves. I wonder if she had received an Oscar nomination if her dance double would have been as pushy as Natalie Portman’s was.
There’s also a series of six deleted scenes that run about seven minutes and of the bunch the most interesting are a pair of scenes featuring Daniel Dae Kim (“Lost”, “Hawaii Five-O”), whose role as a cocky Bureau agent named Henderson was ultimately cut from the film, but here we see him patronizing Slattery’s character twice. There are actually some good scenes here, but they were all rightly cut from the film.
The featurettes, however, are pretty elementary if you ask me. The Blu-ray exclusive “Labyrinth of Doors” feature is a complete waste of time as it takes the door system the Adjustment Bureau uses to travel around New York and uses a Google Earth map where you can follow their path. I would have to be extremely bored to actually waste time with this feature for longer than 30 seconds, which is about as long as I was able to last once I learned what it was about.
Finding a studio title from 2011 worth recommending you buy has been a chore so far this year, but I think this one is well worth the purchase. I can imagine myself returning to it often and the Blu-ray presentation is solid and comes with an accompanying DVD and Digital Copy if you have the need.
