Marketing Philosophical Theologyas Romantic Thriller
by Jo Piazza
Fedoras have made a comeback as of late. Their recent prominence in fashion is underscored by their function in the recent Matt Damon thriller “The Adjustment Bureau” where the hats imbue their wearers with mystical powers allowing them to circumnavigate from the West Side to the East Side of Manhattan by crossing through a single door and adjust a person’s destiny with a tip of their brow. Needless to say the door thing comes in handy since crossing midtown during rush hour can take at last 45 minutes.
But the fedora doesn’t provide the niftiest tricks of “The Adjustment Bureau.” The truly grand feat was disguising a film steeped in philosophical theology as a romantic thriller. Is it a romance? Sure? Thrilling? Sometimes. But more than both, it was a serious screed on the existence and interference of god in everyday life.
That predestination in the film is seen as an elaborate plan spelled out in a leather bound book created by someone called the Chairman and it’s dictums carried out by a stable of middle management minions in wash and wear suits does seem to make it an apt parable for our times. Continue Reading →