Sunday 5 June 2011

Adjustment Bureau

Making Adjustments

Starring Matt Damon as a rising politician and Emily Blunt as a ballerina. The Adjustment Bureau is a love story with a bit of thriller and sci-fi thrown in. They play a lovestruck couple blocked from controlling their destiny when the agents of Fate conspire to keep them apart. Fate comes in the form of mysterious hat-wearing agents – the Adjustment Bureau – who resemble extras from Mad Men.

The action zips around New York, particularly in one pulse-pounding chase sequence that sees Damon race from the diamond of the New Yankee Stadium to the Statue of Liberty in a matter of minutes.



Now for my own input: It was an incredibly romantic show. Have you ever met a girl/guy you thought was meant to be with you? You met under some strange circumstance, like in a toilet (one of you ain’t supposed to be there). Locked visuals and feel that tingle in your body. You broke into conversation, exchanged some jokes and left. In American culture or in the movies, you kissed within 10 minutes of meeting each other.

Then somehow, you bumped into each other again in a bus. You had a fantastic exchange of conversation for the next 20 minutes. But the “Adjustment Bureau” just wouldn’t let you both be together. That’s because you were made for greater things and being with her/him will “divert” you from the path you were meant to travel. What if being with her will ruin her career aspirations? If you love her, would you sacrifice her career and yours just to be with her?

It’s a tough choice. I know it may never happen to me because first, I’m probably not meant to run for the Sennate in the US or for MP in Singapore, or that I’d ever meet the “Adjustment Bureau”. But I’ve probably experienced being with someone I love that will influence me the negative way. For example in this movie, Matt Damon was running for office; a logical, over-achiever. Blunt was a ballet dancer with no respect for rules, who let her emotions dictate her actions.

I love my wife very much. She’s family to me. She’s my pillar of support, the beacon of hope when I get battered and bruised by work, by the stock markets, by life. Her gentle touch calms me and tells me that everything’s gonna be alright. She is my only family, because I am not close to my parents. Never was. Her family showed me warmth that I’ve never experienced before. With her beside me, I can trust the world more, I feel more secure. She is the world to me.

However, while she doesn’t influence me the wrong way, she is a bit like Blunt’s character in the movie. She’s a little emotional, a strong lover for the arts. On the other hand, I’m a logical guy. Someone who loves to beat another in chess. I’m very competitive. I get frustrated if things don’t go according to my ideal vision of the world. I want to change the world, right every wrong. She forgives the world for all its flaws. She has a very kind though and tries to help the world in her little ways. I think of grand plans, schemes, strategies to change things.

In my opinion, it’s a match made in heaven. However,  In my former church, Wesley Methodist, a pastor who looked like Kung Fu Panda, by the initials of DT, told us our match was made in hell. It would never work out. That was way back in 2009 July. He even spoke about divorce and why we should never contemplate divorce in my wedding day. Before that, we had trouble getting married because not many pastors wanted to marry us in Wesley. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I wasn’t going to a church that puts me down. When someone tells me I can’t do it, I’ll put in 10x more effort to prove that I can.

Here I am DT, still married, still loving my wife very much. I’ll bet she loves me just as much and we are happier together than ever before. Wesley Methodist, You of the Adjustment Bureau. I don’t know what PLAN you have, or by what measure you took of us, but you’re dead wrong. I’m going to prove to you, that 5 decades later, when many of the wedding ceremonies you’ve conducted for those rich Beverley Hills couples whom you suck up to failed, we’re still together.

I have Grit, I have Strength, I see the BIG Picture, I have Gratitude. I’ll change the world for the better while you continue to write off couples like us.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adjustment_Bureau

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZJ0TP4nTaE