The Adjustment Bureau

After watching a movie with your children or students, we encourage parents and teachers to look for education opportunities to teach with movies. Here are a few discussion topics that can help with lesson plans or teaching in the home.

David’s personal agent Harry (Anthony Mackie) falls asleep on the job and as a result David arrives at the office in time to see the Bureau doing a readjustment on David’s coworkers. What impact can seemingly small incidents have on events? What kind of accidents result from driver distraction, sleepiness, or inattentiveness? What major disasters can be attributed to small factors? On a different scale, how have every day coincidences changed your life for the better or worse?

Why are the agents at the Adjustment Bureau worried about David’s relationship with Elise? What do they mean when they say she will "be enough"? What is the balance between being content with life and driven to have or be more? Are both contentment and drive important qualities? Can a person experience both at the same time?

Several real life news anchors and TV hosts (Chuck Scarborough, Jon Stewart, Betty Lui, Daniel Bazile) show up as themselves in this movie. Do these kinds of appearances in fictional stories affect their credibility as real news hosts? Do they blur the line between factual reporting and entertainment?

Do you think this film is trying to make a statement by casting a young black man as the agent of change compared to the older, white male bureau member who follows the traditional way of dealing with people who don’t stick to their life plan?