FILM: The Adjustment Bureau

Not quite as tricky as Inception, a film with which it shares a penchant for visual surprises, THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU has the added advantage of a romance.

ALTHOUGH not quite as tricky as Inception, a film with which it shares a penchant for visual surprises, THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU has the added advantage of a romance to give it life, if not credibility. This is no ordinary affair, however, because it goes against the rules laid down by officers of the organisation that controls our lives and ensures we all follow the course chosen by well-dressed men who may be angels.

David (Matt Damon) is a rising politician endorsed by Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, for the Senate. A minor indiscretion puts a temporary end to his ambitions — a setback echoed last week when a mayoral candidate was forced to withdraw in uncannily similar circumstances — but he finds immediate consolation in Elise (Emily Blunt), whom he meets in an unlikely place. The chance encounter is not part of the bureau's plan for David and obstacles are put in their way to bring him back into line. The grand scheme is revealed to David by the sympathetic Harry (Anthony Mackie) and the more businesslike Richardson (John Slattery), both of whom work for Thompson (Terence Stamp), who is closer to the man upstairs.

The result could spark a discussion about predestination, luck, accident and fate with an unstoppable mutual attraction added to a mixture that depends on cinematic illusions for its effect.

Director George Nolfi has based his script on a story by the late Philip K Dick and, for those who don’t know Dick, his inventive tales have already given birth to Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report and Next.

Nolfi lends a touch of reality to this existential fantasy by showing David being interviewed by TV host Jon Stewart, but that does not guarantee that David will escape his hated mentors or avoid becoming an automaton going through motions dictated by masters of the universe .

As always, Dick provided an imaginative foundation for others to follow but the film strays from his formula, thereby undermining his provocative ideas on free will and preordination.

NOWHERE BOY focuses on a traumatic, formative period in the teenage life of John Lennon (Aaron Johnson) years before The Beatles became famous, controversial and wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.

Lennon’s troubled adolescence was due, first , to his upbringing by Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas), his uptight aunt, and his belated discovery that Julie (Anne-Marie Duff), his mother, was not only alive but living close enough for frequent visits during which she, a vibrant and sexy woman, introduced the aimless youngster to rock ’n roll.

The rest may be musical history but, as Sam Taylor-Wood’s engrossing and insightful film makes clear, the restless Lennon’s search for a purpose and identity, and his eventual invention of a unique personality, had their roots in his painful, frustrating youthful experience.

Most Beatles fans will be familiar with the basic facts of Lennon's background, leaving the aim of any biographer, especially one with Taylor-Wood’s artistic proclivities, being to convince us that these events had a bearing on the spiritual and mental growth of the genius who would emerge later.

Matt Greenhalgh’s script is based on Lennon’s half-sister’s observations, which, naturally, were limited, so, to compensate for any unreliable memories, the screenplay concentrates more on Lennon’s two "mothers" . These contrasting maternal guardians who, each in her own imperfect way, contributed towards his emotional, intellectual and musical development, were honoured by at least two songs — My Mummy’s Dead and Mother — Lennon dedicated to them .

Needless to say, Scott Thomas and Duff dominate a film in which Johnson fails to impress, as do the facsimiles of George, Paul, the forgotten Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe, the original Quarrymen, whose music consisted of regurgitated American material. Everyone knows that Lennon went on to much greater and highly original things and this perceptive examination provides the psychological reasons for his ambition and cynicism without ignoring his musicality.

BETWEEN KINGS AND QUEENS comes to us from Nigeria and is just as convincing and professional as the fortune-promising letters emanating from that country.