Disclosure Day Review
Tense and wondrous, Disclosure Day unfurls its mystery across a high-tech race against the clock.
Dr. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) is on the run from a nefarious government agency run by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), with a treasure trove of illicit data in hand. As he dashes around the country with his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) in tow, avoiding black SUVs at the behest of his mentor and disclosing architect Hugo (Colman Domingo), he finds he’s not the only one with a weird extraterrestrial experience who is key to this thing. Enter news anchor Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), whose chance encounter with a bird leads to her speaking in tongues on live TV - and ultimately, to an irresistible need to meet and connect with Kellner. Little do they know that the thing driving them together, is a secret that has been buried by the Government for decades, and originates far from this planet.
Disclosure Day is an interesting film, particularly when considering its context in Spielberg’s ouevre. It’s part Close Encounters, part War of the Worlds promise is probably a bit of a bluff, because while there is plenty of extra terrestrial goodness here, there’s more than a dash of Minority Report as well.
The cast is stacked to the gills, and yet this feels like quite an intimate film. There are big revelations for sure, but it plays out across a unique connection between two individuals, surrounded by a secret government organisation that chases them across a small area and a short period. It lends the film a sense of the frenetic that undoubtedly benefits it.
Performances across the board are strong. Emily Blunt in particular is fantastic, with long sequences where she’s speaking in tongues, switching it up in what appears to be a single long take. Visually, the film also often stuns - with some gorgeous visuals in lighting and cinematography that feel ripped from another time period of more practical work, but then combined with some CGI effects that could never have been done in Spielberg’s earlier work.
There are a few missteps, but much of that stems from the plot itself, which could perhaps have a few holes. You might leave the theatre questioning why, for example, the people who have these extra terrestrial powers need them to solve seemingly only the problems they bring about. Or why Hugo instructs them not to release the files, only for them to eventually do just that two days later. Or, perhaps most intriguingly, why any of the film’s frantic chase, data leaking plot is necessary given the final reveal at the end.
But ultimately, Disclosure Day harks back to an age of movies that felt a little more lived in. Films that dared us to wonder and dream. It’s failings can probably be ignored in service of what it does right; which is give us a reason to question, and a thrilling couple of hours in the cinema as we once again dive into the far reaches of outer space writ small on our tiny Blue Dot of a planet, served up by the man who is undoubtedly the master of such works.
