PLOT: A TV weatherperson (Emily Blunt) and a government whistleblower (Josh O’Connor) are thrown together in a life-or-death race against time to reveal the truth about the existence of aliens.
REVIEW: Disclosure Day marks Steven Spielberg’s return to one of his defining subjects: the existence of extraterrestrial life. Very much feeling like a companion piece to his own Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the film sees Spielberg delving into interesting territory—namely, the public’s right to know whether extraterrestrial life has ever made contact with humanity. Spielberg’s heroes believe definitively that it has, while the antagonists, represented by Colin Firth’s Scanlon, believe the opposite.
Disclosure Day starts strong, with Spielberg opening the film after much of the action has already occurred. We meet Josh O’Connor’s Kellner, a cybersecurity expert who once worked for Wardex, a company devoted to keeping the existence of aliens top secret while operating independently for the government. He has stolen files and technology, and the movie opens with him trying to negotiate for the release of his kidnapped girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson). From there, the film rarely lets up, becoming a ticking-clock thriller once we realize the world is on the brink of nuclear war. The theory is that if humanity knew it wasn’t alone, it might unite in a way never seen before (interestingly, Peter Hyams’ overlooked 2010 posed the same idea).
The film then introduces Emily Blunt’s Margaret Fairchild, a TV weatherperson who feels rootless, only for her to suddenly start spewing gobbledygook on the air that Kellner and his allies immediately recognize. It turns out that the two are destined to uncover this mystery together while being pursued by two opposing forces: Colin Firth’s Wardex organization, which wants them dead, and Colman Domingo’s Hugo, a former employee who defected and now operates his own underground network.
All of that sounds pretty compelling, right? Well, there’s the problem. Much of Disclosure Day is absorbing, but too often the film falls into hokeyness, with stiff dialogue (Spielberg came up with the story, but it’s written by his frequent collaborator David Koepp), shockingly unconvincing visual effects (the CGI animals are especially poor), and inconsistent characterization.
Blunt and O’Connor are affable leads, with him convincing as an everyman, while she initially gives a broader performance, as she’s meant to portray a bubbly, image-conscious TV presenter. Colin Firth’s Scanlon is set up as the villain, but the problem is that his supposedly all-powerful company, Wardex, is hilariously easy to foil. There are endless shots of its agents pulling up in black cars, only to be easily evaded with some of the oldest tricks in the book. Some roles also could have been left on the cutting-room floor, with Wyatt Russell poorly served as Blunt’s dopey boyfriend. Meanwhile, Domingo, who has plenty of gravitas, is largely saddled with exposition, while Firth veers into hammy territory too often in a role that doesn’t really suit him, as he lacks genuine menace.
Spielberg also throws in several large-scale action sequences that come off as too grandiose and over-the-top, with a train-and-car chase straining credibility and lacking the old-school thrills found in films that opted for a more practical approach. There’s also a heavy-handed subplot regarding faith and how it reconciles with the existence of extraterrestrials that isn’t as compelling as it should be, with Hewson’s Jane conveniently being an ex-nun. The movie raises interesting questions it never fully follows up on, such as whether the revelation of alien life would completely destabilize the planet and what the fallout would be. To me, that’s a more intriguing idea than what the movie ultimately chooses to focus on.
However, I have to give Spielberg a lot of credit in other areas. For one thing, we’re constantly bombarded with soulless tentpole movies that lack any real heart, and this one has it in abundance. There are several moments—particularly in the final act—that remind you exactly whose movie you’re watching, and John Williams’ score is terrific. The finale is undeniably powerful, with Blunt really delivering the goods after much of the earlier portion of the film was anchored by O’Connor, who remains low-key and effective throughout.
Is Disclosure Day perfect? No. There are some hokey “Shia LaBeouf swinging on a jungle vine” moments, and at over 140 minutes it’s undeniably overstuffed. Yet it still contains its fair share of compelling sequences, and Spielberg’s sense of momentum remains second to none. More importantly, it wears its heart on its sleeve, and in a world increasingly dominated by assembly-line blockbusters, that’s worth celebrating even if it could have been better.
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