Angels have a pretty rough time of it in the movies. They get assigned odd menial tasks on Earth, like wandering around listening to the thoughts of people with whom they can never interact (Wings of Desire), keeping suicidal drunks from offing themselves (It’s a Wonderful Life), and trying to get notoriously fickle humans to fall (and stay) in love (A Life Less Ordinary). And when they screw up, they’re forced to wander Wisconsin for all eternity (Dogma). I’d say they need a union, but we all know what happened the last time they tried to organize in large numbers to address grievances with management.

The members of the Adjustment Bureau are essentially angels in all but name, with a similarly thankless mandate from on high: keeping wayward humans on the pre-approved plan that’s fated for them. When someone is about to wander off the path, an adjustment is required.

That’s the very basic premise of the Phillip K. Dick short story on which first-time director George Nolfi (screenwriter for one Ocean’s 11 sequel and the last Bourne movie) based his screenplay. But that concept is about all he keeps, turning a pretty lightweight, casually misogynistic short story into a solidly engaging romantic thriller that sacrifices neither romance nor tension for the sake of the other.