The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

The secret agents running every human life in The Adjustment Bureau wear fedoras, travel through doors and lose track of you in a light drizzle. Once you accept that, it’s a charming movie. The rules are that silly: their hats let them cut across the city through any doorway, and water scrambles their tracking. What sells it is Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. Their first meeting, in a men’s room where he’s rehearsing a speech, is so loose and funny that you’ll believe these two would fight fate for a second date. Anthony Mackie is warm as the sleepy agent who starts it all, and John Slattery plays fate’s middle manager like a guy with a quarterly review due. The final chase through doors never feels dangerous. It made $127.9 million worldwide on a reported $62M. A 6.0 because the romance carries it and the mythology wears a hat to cover the thin spots. $193 says you take your hat off indoors this week and feel a tiny bit less powerful for the rest of the day.

What works: Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have easy, funny chemistry, and their first meeting is one of the best meet-cutes of its era.

What doesn’t: The rules about hats, doors and water get sillier the more they’re explained, and the ending wraps up far too easily.

Who it’s for: Romantics who like a little sci-fi in their love story and won’t ask too many questions about the hats.