Rhapsodies

I’ve always enjoyed modern folklore involving UFOs and related esoterica. Because of this, for this week’s selection, I chose films featuring the beings referred to as Men in Black. Keep in mind, when I say Men in Black, I’m not talking about agents of a shadowy secret government so popular in conspiracy theories, but the original versions where these are shadowy, mysterious, beings who are definitely not human.

The first film on my list, Alex Proyas Knowing, tells the story of a time capsule that contains a sheet of numbers written by Lucinda Embry, a disturbed young girl, fifty years ago. This is brought home by Caleb the nine-year-old son of the widowed MIT astrophysics professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) Koestler finds that the sheet is a list of dates and locations of the greatest disasters in the last fifty years. To make matters worse there are several dates on the art that haven’t happened yet. As he tries to get to the bottom of this he finds that he is being watched. By… People who seem to want things to continue on schedule.

. This was pretty much a by the numbers Nicolas Cage film, with Cage being paranoid and helpless for most of the Film. The disaster effects were impressive but that was pretty much all it had going for it.

The next film on my list, George Nolfi’s The Adjustment Bureau, tells the story of Congressman David Norris, (Matt Damon) an up and coming politician who, after his campaign for Senator crash and burns meets the love of his life, Elise Sellas, (Emily Blunt), inspiring him to move forward. However, he finds himself being constantly pushed away from her and his life being adjusted by a mysterious agency who controls human destiny for, what they claim, is the greater good.

Ultimately I found this film disappointing. I liked the concept, and execution was okay but ultimately, I found the bureau itself far more interesting than its protagonists and found myself wishing the story was completely about them and their operatives. Also, the ending seemed to consist of the writers forgetting all of the rules they’d written for the rest of the film.