The Adjustment Bureau

The compulsion to state your purpose directly indicates a dysfunctional narrative.

Cool movie...right until the end. Anytime you feel you have to explain the message of the story in a speech, you have failed to present a complete story, and failed to create something meaningful.

The missing component is the lack of a well-defined Obstacle Character, a character whose primary role is to challenge the Main Character's approach to solving problems. Because the heart of the story lies within the relationship between Elise and David Norris(Matt Damon) it only follows that Elise should have assumed this key structural role.

The end result is a solid Twilight Zone episode stretched out over two hours. There is some tension found between the story's Focus of Chaos and the character's response of Order, but without a solidly defined Obstacle Character the story ultimately argues nothing.

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