To convey my problems with Steven Spielberg’s new film DISCLOSURE DAY presents a difficult review to write, as I’m not only a fan of the brilliant filmmaker, but I also don’t like to give away spoilers. And I cannot spell out so many of the movie’s shortcomings without giving away far too much of what occurs on screen. Thus, I will have to stick to more general criticisms for those of you who are still curious to read my dissenting review.
Suffice it to say, I found DISCLOSURE DAY to be shallow, labored, and lacking in any genuine intellectualism and emotional resonance. The characters felt too one-dimensional most of the time to invest in, the action was passable but never breathtaking, and the failure to make more hay out of its core appeal as a story, the discovery of alien life, was utterly confounding to me. I wanted this to be a continuation of themes expressed so vividly in Spielberg classics like CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and ET. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL. Instead, as Spielberg has described it on junkets, this film is essentially a “chase movie.”
Spielberg’s film, the first in history to list the name “Spielberg” above the title, signaling that he is the star of this production, is a work that feels second-tier at best despite the marquee. For those who’ve lauded this film as a return to form and perhaps his greatest film in the last two decades, I’d suggest they take another look at the superior films that are LINCOLN, AI: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, and MUNICH.
The set-up here is simple enough, perhaps too simple, in that the action starts right away as an earnest scientist named Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) manages to escape the clutches of a secret government agency responsible for suppressing the discovery of aliens and UFOs since post-WWII. Kellner has multiple hard drives that prove their existence, and he wants to share them with the public. So does his former boss, now in hiding, Hugo Wakefield. We know he’s a professorial type because he wears tweeds, yes tweeds, and is played in sonorous voice by the ever-authoritative Colman Domingo. The head of the government agency, furious at being bested, is Noah Scanlon, played by Colin Firth, dressed and played as if he’s a Bond villain. Along the way, the good guys will join Emily Blunt’s TV meteorologist, Margaret Fairchild, a clairvoyant with a connection to the aliens. Along with Kellner’s girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson), the characters hurtle towards each other and the disclosure about UFOs once and for all.
Granted, some of the action is involving, and some supporting players add amusement, like Wyatt Russell as Blunt’s clueless boyfriend. Unfortunately, the film misses opportunity after opportunity to showcase the truth of what Kellner and Wakefield possess to the point where the aliens feel like little more than a McGuffin, the plot device to get the chase going. Even in the third act, when there are golden opportunities to meaningfully showcase the extraterrestrials, the film does them wrong, failing to give them time, enough character, or even a proper voice.
Because Spielberg has spent so much time looking to the skies in his works, audiences will be predisposed to see more in this film than what’s really there. If he had started the film with the last act and gone from that vantage point, I think the film could have been a marvel. (Maybe a sequel is in the works to do just that.) But this film struck me as almost a cheat. Spielberg has explored our relationship to alien life before with great gusto and emotion, but this feels too much like that mere “chase film” he described. It’s one where the stakes don’t feel as important as they should, and too much time is spent with these characters racing around.
I wanted to love this one, be truly moved by this one, but for my money, it was a very disappointing day.
