Matt Damon Turns in a Stunning Performance in 'The Adjustment Bureau'

When you are watching the young actor Matt Damon in the stunning and impressive sci-fi thriller The Adjustment Bureau, it is hard to believe that the guy nearly killed himself preparing for one of his earliest roles. It's true, though. In preparation for his supporting role in the Iraq War One movie Courage Under Fire he prepared for portraying a drug addicted young man by putting himself in a self-prescribed diet. He lost 40 pounds in 100 days and then only appeared in character for two days of filming and just a few short scenes in the movie.

What was the result of that kind of commitment? Doctors told him that he was lucky he didn't shrink his heart and then had to take medication, for years, afterward in order to correct stress he inflicted on his adrenal gland with the crash diet.

Thankfully, Damon survived. He not only survived, but he thrived. The movie he nearly died for won him rave reviews as the young many who is saw haunted by what he saw in the war he has turned to opiates to try and cope. Then, he proved, he was just warming up and he was not just a one-dimensional actor.

The next film that won Damon acclaim was one that he co-wrote with his friend, Ben Affleck. Affleck would star in the film with him and the movie would go on to win awards and acclaim. It won Robin Williams an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and it won Affleck and Damon awards for Best Original Screenplay. That movie, as you might have guessed, was Good Will Hunting.

Damon wasn't done, though. After he played a lawyer in The Rainmaker, director Steven Spielberg saw something in him and cast him as the titular character in his acclaimed war movie Saving Private Ryan. Again, praise was heaped upon his performance and he let himself be a secondary star in a movie with Hollywood powerhouses such as Tom Hanks. He even, reportedly, improvised a scene between himself and Hanks' characters where Ryan talks about remembering his brothers back home.

His knack for being in ensemble was noticed and he was soon cast with stars such as George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Julia Roberts and more in the Ocean's movies. With those roles, plus lampooning himself in a brief screen appearance as himself in his friend Kevin Smith's film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, showed that he could also do comedy. Still, he was set to start out on his own and prove that he could carry a movie, and even a franchise, all by himself.

He would get that chance, and prove that he could do an action film, with the Bourne movies. He played the amnesiatic government assassin Jason Bourne. He would prove to be such a success at it, that he would be welcomed back in two sequels, with the potential for more to come.

He has proven himself to be an actor willing to take chances and to take roles in mega-blockbusters. For example, he has taken time away from major movie roles to star in smaller and more experimental films such as Gus Van Sant's Gerry.

However, he may have played one his best roles as potential U.S. Senator, David Norris, in the sci-fi thriller The Adjustment Bureau. A movie that proves to be an edge-of-your-seat thriller while, at the same time, hefting some powerful and moving philosophical questions at you at the same time.

The movie asks the question: do we really have free will with the major choices we make in our lives? This film, taken from a Philip K. Dick short story, poses the theory that there is a team of bureaucrats, many mistaken for agents, who make sure that all of humanity stays on their designated path. Who makes the plan? Well, they call him The Chairman, but no one really knows who he or she, is.

Norris, however, is a man about to deviate from his path. After a horrible loss for a U.S. Senate seat, he meets Elise, played by Emily Blunt. She is hiding in the men's room and she is a free spirit. She is also a dancer. Norris is thunderstruck. He is in love. He wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his time with Elise.

There's one problem. He isn't supposed to end up with Elise. The Chairman's plan says he isn't supposed to end up with her. He is destined to be something else and do something else. She is supposed to continue her dancing career.

Before too long men in suits and wearing fedora hats are trying to do everything they can to keep Norris and Elise apart. However, David has now seen how the universe works. He cannot forget Elise and he cannot accept that the plan cannot be changed. It asks the question, how far would you be willing to go in order to achieve the things you want to achieve.

However, don't think that this is a heavy movie just loaded with deep questions. No, this movie moves along at a lightning-fast clip and leaves you breathless. When David Norris dons his own fedora, well, things get interested, exciting and thrilling in ways you probably wouldn't imagine. How can they beat the system when the system may be God itself?

There have been many critics who have claimed that the ending is some kind of cop out. I don't agree. I felt the movie got the best ending it could. Perhaps their complaint is that there are hints of "deux ex machina" in the ending. However, the entire movie is all about the fact that, within the context of the film, our entire lives are an example of deus ex machina. So, really, what's the problem? Perhaps critics just want to have a movie with a downer ending.

Damon is outstanding in this role. He projects a confidence that belies his youthful appearance. He looks like a man who could run for U.S. Senate. Several times, throughout, I wished that he really was David Norris and was running for office.

It's a good thing he survived that early movie role. If he hadn't, it seems unlikely that films like The Adjustment Bureau would be the outstanding piece of entertainment that it is.