What possesses a screenwriter to tackle the huge issues of fate and free will in the context of a big-screen romance? “Naiveté?” George Nolfi, writer and director of The Adjustment Bureau, responds with a laugh. The film, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, opens Friday.
(L to R) MATT DAMON as David Norris and writer/director/producer GEORGE NOLFI on the set of the romantic thriller "The Adjustment Bureau". In the film, Damon plays a man who glimpses the future planned for him and realizes he wants something else. To get it, he must pursue the only woman he's ever loved and defy the agents of Fate–a mysterious group of men exerting control over their lives.In an interview with Christianity Today, Nolfi says that “the questions of why are we here, what makes life meaningful, and how much can we choose our own course have interested me for as long as I can remember.” Raised in an Episcopal/Catholic family, Nolfi earned degrees in philosophy and political science at Princeton, Oxford, and UCLA. So when his producing partner brought him the Philip K. Dick short story “Adjustment Team”—which deals with fate personified as a bureau of agents—and suggested Nolfi do it as a love story, “I took immediately to that idea.”
The result is a film about a New York politician, David Norris (Damon), who falls quickly for a free-spirited ballet dancer (Blunt), but is immediately told by some mysterious agents of fate that he’s not supposed to be with her, that their relationship would destroy the impressive plans that “The Chairman” has for each of their lives. The man, David, must decide whether to follow his fate or fight for something different.
“The movie grapples with what all human beings—religious and philosophical—have to deal with: Are our lives determined? Or are they really chosen?” says Nolfi, who also wrote screenplays for The Bourne Ultimatum and Ocean’s Twelve. Though the Adjustment Bureau agents seem to be working against David when he exerts his free will, close observers will notice other forces at work—chance? The Chairman?—in his life as well.
“From a Calvinistic perspective, you can view the whole thing as guided by The Chairman all along,” says Nolfi. “Why does David’s main agent, Harry, fall asleep when he does? Why does Richardson’s hat fall off when it does?” Subtle imagery—various sounds, the rays of the sun—hint that there are more than just humans and agents impacting the course of events.
Nolfi’s production partner Michael Hackett says, “It’s certainly not accidental that The Adjustment Bureau, distilled to its purest form, echoes a number of the great belief systems around the world, religious or otherwise.” But Nolfi himself is reluctant to get any more specific than that. “I purposely didn’t make a religious movie, which is why there’s a chairman and agents,” he explains. “Issues of fate are unanswerable questions, questions of faith literally. I wanted the movie to raise questions, so I don’t want somebody to view it through the lens of my belief system.”
Writer/director/producer GEORGE NOLFI on the set of the romantic thriller "The Adjustment Bureau". In the film, Matt Damon plays a man who glimpses the future planned for him and realizes he wants something else. To get it, he must pursue the only woman he's ever loved and defy the agents of Fate–a mysterious group of men exerting control over their lives.Nolfi recently participated in a screening of The Adjustment Bureau attended by an audience of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. Afterward, a key leader in each religion helped moderate a discussion. “All three of these religions confront issues of free will in a big way,” Nolfi says. “In all three there is a more free will side of the tradition and a more deterministic side. I find that fascinating.”
While free will is a recurring theme in these faith systems and in the film, so is the problem of evil. “If there’s a higher power who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and benevolent, why is there all the pain and suffering in the world? I didn’t think I could ignore that question in the film,” Nolfi says. “When there’s a grand plan that explains suffering, then whatever your religious or philosophical beliefs, that suffering has a purpose.” He admits he brought in the element of chance in part to address that. “There’s also the message that The Chairman wants the characters to find free will and value free will and that suffering and obstacles are the only context in which that can happen.”
But as soon as he says that, Nolfi mentions places in the film that also undercut that idea. “I’m not proposing anything absolute. A good movie simply poses questions and lets the audience think for themselves.” There’s a value in discussing films and how we want our lives and the world to be, he says. “Finding a way to work together on a national and even international level begins with people talking to each other.”
In this exchange of ideas, Nolfi asserts, we have the potential to make the world a better place.
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