Disclosure Day – Movie Review
Steven Spielberg and aliens. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. War of the Worlds. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And now, Disclosure Day – an emotionally charged sci-fi thriller that feels like the legendary and iconic filmmakers cry for the powerful truth about whether we are alone or not in the universe to be revealed.
From an original story conceived by Spielberg himself, and penned by longtime collaborator David Koepp (Jurassic Park), Disclosure Day begins with a thrilling scene involving cybersecurity expert and whistleblower Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) attempting to escape the grasp of a “government” agency called Wardex, run by the threatening Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), with secretive documents and a mysterious device that will change the course of existence forever – full disclosure of alien life outside of Earth. While Daniel continues to outrun those after him with the help of a group of Wardex defectors led by Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), television weather presenter Maragret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) begins to experience a strange phenomena that grants her psychic-like abilities, which the other-worldly beings begin to use as a form of larger scale communication with the human race, and ultimately forcing Maragret’s path to collide with Daniel’s.
With such a strong and brilliant sci-fi filmography under his belt, it’s no surprise that when Disclosure Day is good, it’s pretty damn great. Spielberg’s iconic visual style not only brings a sense of awe and wonder to the alien centric atmosphere of the film, but his ability to make the most quiet and intimate moments feel unbelievably cinematic is truly astounding. It’s worth noting however that Disclosure Day is not an alien invasion movie that holds the spectacle of things like War of the Worlds or the other action-packed fare of his filmography. But, the sparing use of exciting action-set pieces in the film, particularly a scene involving a train, still shows that Spielberg knows how to craft exciting and tense cinematic moments.
Spielberg’s strongly back-lit, blue-ish hued, dynamic camera movement filled visual flair is elevated by two key technical collaborations that have proven in the past to create iconic film moments. The first collaboration is with cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, who seemingly has no issues taking the ideas straight from Spielberg’s brain and Koepp’s script, and brings them to life so wonderfully on screen. The second, and arguably most beautiful, collaboration is with 94-year-old composer John Williams, who once again has created a soul-stirring score that might not hold the power of a Jaws or Indiana Jones theme, but still packs an emotional punch when Spielberg shifts the film from conspiracy thriller to an emotionally intimate story about the power and unity that arrives from truth.
It’s the story and script where Disclosure Day may prove most divisive for audiences. For the first two-thirds of its 146 minute runtime, Disclosure Day is a real mixed bag from Spielberg. It’s a slow paced, clunky, confusing, and elongated set-up that sometimes mistakes mystery and intrigue for unearned ambiguity and tonal clashes. A lot of the first 90 minutes of the film repetitively follows Daniel and Marageret as they’re on the run, occasionally throwing in some great moments of tension with Firth’s menacing take on Noah, that just feels off. The dialogue is quite lame, the simple exposition is expanded far too thinly, and there are attempts at comedy that come at very strange moments, which ultimately make the first two-third quite a tough watch.
But even in these more awkward and stilted scenes, the technical elements of the film, and a series of outstanding performances, particularly Emily Blunt and Colman Domingo, that still give this inkling of hope that the maestro of movies can pull the magical lever that lands the plane. In fact, it’s Blunt, who gives a truly brilliant performance as a woman who in one moment is comedically navigating the fact that she can randomly speak Russian or read people’s mind, to absolutely breaking audiences hearts as she is forced to relive a significant, but traumatic childhood memory that may be the key to finalising disclosure, that holds the entire piece together.
As the film approaches its third act, and Spielberg reveals where the final 45 minutes are going to go, Disclosure Day becomes the extraordinary Spielberg-ian film that is more inline with the movies that changed cinema forever. The tone pivots from the expectation of a blockbuster finale, to a touching and intimate series of scenes that feel more spiritually akin with Close Encounters and The Fabelmans, leading with sincerity and earnestness about how universal truths can unite the world. It is epic, it is emotional, and it feels much more like the story Spielberg kind of fumbled his way through the first 90 minutes to get to.
The final act of Disclosure Day showcases once more the cinematic legend that Steven Spielberg is. It is just unfortunate that you have to stumble through an overlong and clunky set up to get there. But it’s the technical wonder that Spielberg and his longtime collaborators create, along with an outstanding performance from Emily Blunt, that make the journey worth reaching the destination.
Disclosure Day releases in Australian cinemas on June 11
