On the couch

We’re screwed.
This might not come as a shock to many, or sadly, any of us but what might still be a little woolly is why?
Inside Job, Charles H Ferguson Oscar-winning documentary lays out with stark and occasionally frightening clarity what went wrong and how it may all happen again.
Narrated by Matt Damon, the story begins with how Iceland’s deregulation cracked open the lid of Pandora’s Box before shifting focus to America and how strict market regulation and 40 years of economic growth gave way to fewer and fewer financial controls and a rise in two things: bankers’ wages and risk.
The story is broken into four parts,”How We Got There”, “The Bubble, 2001-07”, “The Crisis” and “Accountability” with a timeline of events leading to the 2008 crash being created by interweaving news clips with a huge number of interviews with politicians, bankers, theorists and business people. Complicated concepts like the derivatives market or the many arcane financial products created to better hide and sell risk are explained with talking heads and creatively designed and animated graphics and flow charts.
The film’s points are made firmly and well: lack of regulation and accountability were the main causes of the world’s recent crisis; the people who led us into this mess – the appointed officials, not the elected ones – are all still in the same or similar jobs proving that few, if any, lessons have been learnt and the very college system that is teaching economics and business practices is corrupt and feeding into the vicious circle of bad practice.
It makes for shocking and fascinating watching and deserves to become obligatory viewing for anyone who wants to bellyache.
If Inside Job had left you in any doubt, our fates are not in our own hands. According to The Adjustment Bureau (TAB) our destinies rest in the mitts of some faceless bureaucrats who pull our strings to serve a higher power with an unclear and unfathomable purpose and plan.
Hmmm… Sound familiar? Anyway…
Beyond sounding like a paranoid conspiracy theory about taking a baleout from the EU or IMF, however, George Nofi’s film paints the agents of fate as a bunch of suited, hat-wearing cosmic g-men who nudge, tweak and occasionally hammer the course of events into line with how “The Grand Plan” is supposed to work.
So far, so fairytale, you say. But what happens if one of the cosmic bean counters makes a mistake and you meet the girl of your dreams, only to be told you can never see her again and even trying to do so will lead to, amongst other things, a virtual lobotomy?
Well that’s the situation aspiring Senator and all-round inspirathon Congressman David Norris (Matt Damon) finds himself in when he meets dancer Elise (Emily Blunt) at a political rally. Sparks fly after the two indulge in some good old-fashioned repartee but after a quick snog she runs off, chased by hotel security.
Will he do what he’s told and settle for a career as the most powerful politician in the free world or will young impulsive David thumb his nose in the face of The Adjustment Bureau’s threats and pursue his true love? What do you think?
Slower and more romantic than your average sci-fi flick but considerably more tense and interesting than typical love story, TAB is an old fashioned-feeling flick with a plently to admire for anyone with a little patience. Just don’t expect Bourne Identity-style chases or ass-kickings here.
Blunt and Damon are great together. The chemistry feels very real and while Damon is a more dependable presence, he is as believably fragile as Blunt’s impulsive, wacky dancer is a truly hurt but sensitive soul.
While matters get a little woolly toward the final third – Terrence Stamp arrives and things speed up a little bt more than you’d want them too – the whole thing never feels either slow or drawn out.
Other than Stamp, the other characters do feel a little lightly drawn, more character sketches than portraits but, given there is very little, if anything, that doesn’t focus on Damon and Blunt spending time together, it’s a flaw that’s easy to forgive.
A good story well told – Sundays were made for films like this.