The Adjustment Bureau" is the latest Philip K. Dick adaptation to be brought to the big screen, and it's more faithful to the spirit of the author than most. Dick was always trying to lace grand metaphysical themes into the pulpy genre requirements of sci-fi, and "The Adjustment Bureau" is no different. Thus we get two hours of musing on destiny vs. free will, combined with some frantic chase scenes through the interdimensional portals of Manhattan. It's an imperfect fit, but one that Dick would recognize.
One can follow Dick's novels from the 1950s through the '70s and see the same story over and over again: A protagonist is trapped in an illusory world, created to deceive him by some over-arching and malevolent force.
The best Dick adaptations have captured this paranoid feeling of inhabiting a "rigged" reality, such as the androids who think they're human in "Blade Runner," or the drug-addled undercover narc who winds up spying on himself in "A Scanner Darkly." "The Adjustment Bureau" follows in this tradition; like "Total Recall" or "Minority Report," it's based on a short story by Dick (from 1954), which means the filmmakers have expanded on the central concept.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.