You probably like something by Phillip K. Dick and you don’t even know it. He’s written truckloads of novels and short stories, many of which have had films created in their likeness, though perhaps vague likeness might be a better way of putting it. Dick’s work includes: Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, Blade Runner, and most recently, The Adjustment Team – which you might know as The Adjustment Bureau. 

The cinematic version of The Adjustment Bureau follows David Norris, a dashing politician played by Matt Damon. Through a series of odd events, David discovers that there is a group of seemingly superhuman men working to control his destiny and keep him on the appropriate path as dictated by the mysterious figure known only as “The Chairman.”

The Adjustment Bureau is first and foremost a love story. The Chairman’s plans don’t allow for David Norris to become involved with the woman that he’s interested in, and the (for lack of a better term) “adjusters” work to keep the two apart. This in turn causes David to rebel against this preordained destiny and fight for his love interest.

At first glance that might seem like an innovative plot, but it’s really just the same old love story dressed in some different rags. Boiled down to its essential elements, we’re left with two people in love fighting against outside parties or forces that want to keep them apart. Not exactly revolutionary, right?              

Let’s get obscure for a moment: in the Twilight movies, Joan Jett and that pasty fellow want to get together but they can’t because he’s a vampire. In Footloose, Kevin Bacon just has to dance, but he can’t because the local religious groups won’t let him. We’ve seen all this before, so it’s never a surprise when Kevin Bacon dance-fights his way to the dance-freedom he’s always wanted, or when those two pasty kids manage work out their weird 100-year age difference, dead vs. alive problems.       

One of Reese Witherspoon’s earlier movies, Freeway, was a reimagining of the Little Red Riding Hood story and it was very innovative (and VERY disturbing).  It offers proof that old dogs can learn new tricks, though it seems that Hollywood isn’t really interested in the dog training business anymore. They’ve found that it’s more lucrative to beat dead horses, I guess.

I know I don’t have to add this, really, but I will anyway: the short story that the Adjustment Bureau was based on is really interesting. If you have a Kindle, you can get it for 99 cents, which is 801 cents less than you’d pay for a ticket to see the movie. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can get it at a library, for free – which, for those of you that struggle with math like I do, is 900 cents less than you would pay for the movie ticket.

In other news, there will be an encore showing of the 2010 Student Film and Video Showcase this Friday, March 11th in the Kathryn Ohman Theater. It runs from 7:00PM – 10:00PM, and is gloriously free and open to the public. Get out of the house and check out the artistic endeavors of your peers. I won’t take no for an answer.