I very much enjoyed it! I share your questions, although for the most part, I was engaged enough to be able to go along with the movie without constantly going, "But whyyyyyyy?" (I credit the excellence of Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and the editing and pacing for that). Damon and Blunt do have lovely, convincing chemistry, enough to make me believe their characters really felt such a strong sense of connection and love that it carried on over the course of four years of mostly not being together or seeing each other.
The best fanwank I have for why they didn't just kill Elise is that she's important in her own right, and that her dancing career is significant to The Plan, just like David's political career. There's nothing in the movie to actually suggest this (the threat to her career is only deployed as an emotional attack on David), but it would sort of work. As long as we're assuming some people matter more to God than others. (The theology of this movie is really not well-thought-out.)
I adored the dancing, which was just gorgeous to watch, and I liked that Elise had her own dreams and career goals, even if those dreams and goals were always being discussed by other characters, instead of by her; I appreciated that the thing that made David walk away from Elise wasn't a stock cliche that she'd end up dead if he didn't, but that her promising career would be tanked. That's...actually a really realistic sort of relationship concern, very down-to-earth, very not-action-flick. (Of course, now I want to know what's going to happen with both their careers--does the plan being re-written mean that they both still get to excel, or do they still settle for less? How much less? Being a senator isn't exactly chicken feed; is Elise still doomed to teach dance to six-year-olds? Did God take care of poor Adrian and the nameless maid of honor back at the courthouse, or do Elise and David have to go awkwardly explain why Elise vanished from her wedding without a word?)
Oh, and on a final note, while I think Damon was note-perfect as an aspiring young politician, I was amused to realize, somewhere near the end of the movie, that we had absolutely no sense at all of his actual politics (except for that one, throwaway bit about investing in solar panels). They completely nailed the form and image of a political campaign while omitting the substance, and I didn't even notice. There's probably something damning in that.
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The best fanwank I have for why they didn't just kill Elise is that she's important in her own right, and that her dancing career is significant to The Plan, just like David's political career. There's nothing in the movie to actually suggest this (the threat to her career is only deployed as an emotional attack on David), but it would sort of work. As long as we're assuming some people matter more to God than others. (The theology of this movie is really not well-thought-out.)
I adored the dancing, which was just gorgeous to watch, and I liked that Elise had her own dreams and career goals, even if those dreams and goals were always being discussed by other characters, instead of by her; I appreciated that the thing that made David walk away from Elise wasn't a stock cliche that she'd end up dead if he didn't, but that her promising career would be tanked. That's...actually a really realistic sort of relationship concern, very down-to-earth, very not-action-flick. (Of course, now I want to know what's going to happen with both their careers--does the plan being re-written mean that they both still get to excel, or do they still settle for less? How much less? Being a senator isn't exactly chicken feed; is Elise still doomed to teach dance to six-year-olds? Did God take care of poor Adrian and the nameless maid of honor back at the courthouse, or do Elise and David have to go awkwardly explain why Elise vanished from her wedding without a word?)
Oh, and on a final note, while I think Damon was note-perfect as an aspiring young politician, I was amused to realize, somewhere near the end of the movie, that we had absolutely no sense at all of his actual politics (except for that one, throwaway bit about investing in solar panels). They completely nailed the form and image of a political campaign while omitting the substance, and I didn't even notice. There's probably something damning in that.