In Steven Spielberg’s new science fiction blockbuster Disclosure Day, Daniel Kellner (Josh O’ Connor) and his girlfriend Jane Blankenship (Eve Henson) have an argument about whether the truth brings people together or tears them apart. He has proof that aliens exist and feels that the United State government and the shadowy security firm they’ve contracted, Wardex corporation, shouldn’t be the gatekeepers of this knowledge. However, Blankenship, a former nun, believes that providing physical proof of a superior being will not only challenge people’s faith in God, but erode the sands of faith that most societies have built their foundations on.
As if watching a cinematic master sort through his own extraterrestrial versus existential conflicted thoughts, Disclosure Day is most exciting when it balances these ideas with Spielberg’s gift for empathetic spectacle. Playing at times like a mixtape of the filmmaker’s previous works, there are times in the film when it taps into the heart of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, provides glimpses of the childlike wonder of E.T. the Extra-terrestrial, channels the sense of paranoia found in War of the Worlds, and the tech heavy man on the run energy of Minority Report.
Playing closer to Minority Report in overall tone, the crux of the film follows Kellner as he tries to evade his former employer after deciding to turn whistleblower. Working with a group of fellow defectors, led by Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), the former staffer is determined to unload the items the unequivocally show that there is life beyond earth before Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), the ruthless head of Wardex, and his team of agents catch up with him.
Possessing reengineered alien technology that allows him to get into the minds of people and control them like a puppet, Scanlon will stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Disclosure Day never fully explains the various capabilities of this technology or why, with such power, Scanlon mainly uses it like an add-on to Google Maps. The audience is simply shown that it can be detrimental to the user’s health and that Kellner has one of these devices, but he is unsure of how to use it.
What does eventually become clear to Kellner is that a key piece of his journey involves Kansas meteorologists Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt). After an innocuous encounter with a cardinal that flew in her kitchen window, Fairchild starts to exhibit a series of strange behaviours. Not only does she suddenly have the ability to speak various languages, but also can read people’s minds and appeal to their sense of empathy.
As if hitting a winning dice roll whenever she approaches the craps table, Blunt is magnetic in every scene she is in. Effortlessly moving through a range of feelings in a given scene, she is the driver of the film’s most amusing moments. Although O’ Connor is effective as always, the only one who come close to stealing Blunt’s thunder is former reporter turned actress Courtney Grace, who gives an emotionally resonating turn as an NBC anchor in the final 30 minutes.
While it’s a bit reductive to make Fairchild the compassionate one and Kellner the analytical side of the duo, as the gender archetypes in the film feel especially dated, this is not as distracting as the path the film takes to setting up its action beats.
So many of the film’s eye-catching set pieces, whether a car chase or a thrilling train sequence, are instigated by laughable moments of convenience. Sequences where characters somehow sneak past a slew of agents unnoticed, flee motels because no one bothered to cover the back of the building, and walk in and out of a heavily fortified area with barely any pushback.
This all adds unnecessary fat which hinders the audience from getting to the meat of David Koepp’s script.
By dropping the viewer into the middle of the story and spending so much time focusing on Kellner and Fairchild’s separate journeys towards each other, Spielberg’s film does not offer much context to the world the characters inhabit. There is talk of a World War III level conflict brewing, but the specifics are as hazy as Wakefield’s master plan to disclosure the alien information. It also doesn’t help that the film tends to beat viewers over the head with its symbolism.
All this makes for a film that is greatly uneven, but still oddly enjoyable. Spielberg is masterful filmmaker whose ability to make a fun summer blockbuster is never in question. When it clicks, such as the moments of existential reflection, Disclosure Day the film is a treat. One just wishes the script didn’t take so many convenient shortcuts on the path to disclosing that the truth is out there.
