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It’s going some for any movie to break into my top 25 films of all time, so all credit to everyone involved in the 2011 release “The Adjustment Bureau.”

I actually came to care about all the characters – David (Matt Damon) and Elise (Emily Blunt) who fall in love with a single kiss, Richardson, who comes to understand that his dream case is “booby trapped,” Harry – who must put things right for David, even Thompson – who unquestionably believes that everything he does is for the greater good._ “Whatever happened to free will?_ David asks him, ‘You don’t have free will – you have the appearance of free will,’ Thompson replies.

“The plan” appears in little black books, like a cross between a police officer’s notebook and a tube map or even an electrical diagram. We learn there have been earlier versions of the plan for David’s life. So it becomes clear that ‘the chairman’ is far more flexible than his ‘case officers’ would lead others to believe.

Does he have only one plan, or does he improvise? At this point, Harry steps back in. ‘She’s enough,’ he tells David. ‘If you have her, you won’t need to fill that void inside of you with applause and votes and dreams of one day making it to the White House. That’s important, but it’s not the only thing that matters.’ So it appears there is even more to life than becoming President of the United States, the most powerful man on earth. Elise has brought the factor of love into David’s life, which is the most liberating force of all, and indeed, the greatest force in the entire universe – as the Bible tells us (1 Corinthians 13.)

We all of course, know The Chairman by another name. Can David and Elise inspire him or will hidden forces keep them apart? As Harry so succintly puts it, “‘Most people live life on the path we set for them, too afraid to explore any other, but once in a while, people like you come along who knock down all the obstacles we put in your way – people who realise free will is a gift you’ll never know how to use until you fight for it. I think that’s the chairman’s real plan. And maybe one day we won’t write the plan – you will.”