If you have never seen the movie The Adjustment Bureau I highly recommend you watch it immediately after reading this three minute adoring blurb on it. I’ve seen it a handful of times probably and it moves me each and every time. Anything to do with fate or a master plan and I’m all over it.
Congressman David Norris is our likeable protagonist and he is running for the United States Senate. One fate drenched morning he meets Elyse, a spontaneous sort of free spirited professional dancer. Only thing is they weren’t supposed to meet.
Answering to “The Chairman”, there are agents that work for, you guessed it, The Adjustment Bureau. These agents, as sort of earth bound angels donning fedora’s and expensive suits, are doing everything in their power to keep David and Elyse apart. Near the beginning of our story, one of the agents falls asleep at his post and royally blows his mission of preventing the two from their first meet.
It’s kismet at first glance. Connection within the first few seconds. A longing begins between the two of them that won’t be quenched if they are apart. And these agents can only do or not do so much to carry out their orders. They make adjustments to alter lives slightly or nudge clients in the direction they’re supposed to go in. Sometimes a recalibration is needed where they change their minds for them, doing the bidding the agents seek.
When David first discovers these agents, they forbid him to see Elyse. He responds with “If I’m not supposed to be with her, why do I feel like this?” I’ve been there, David, I have. Later on, after three years goes by without any contact between them, David randomly spots her on the street. He hastily gets off his bus, the same bus he’s ridden the past three years in search of her. Us men are persistent!
In her apartment, Elyse confesses being engaged a year or so back, and he inquires why she never got married. With tears in her eyes, she responds with “Because of you. Once I felt, even for a moment, what I felt with you…you ruined me. I wouldn’t settle for less.”
Before David makes his final run at beating this hovering threat over his and her lives, he is approached by a rogue agent aptly nicknamed “The Hammer”. This guy gets the job done, typically. David pleads with him and he finally states “All I have are the choices that I make. And I choose her.” In the end, all is finally revealed to Elyse and she trusts David enough to lead her to a beautiful, freeing ending where they actually were supposed to be together and all is well.
As I stated off the hop, I fully believe we are all part of a grand plan, whether we like it or approve of it or not. Sure, we still have free will or some semblance of it but I consider that even free will is factored in by the master planner or “chairman”. Even failure, albeit often temporary, is a known component in my plan and in yours. With an open mind and a willing heart, there is much more to this life than meets the eye.
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