“I’m A Film Writer, Here Is My Honest Review Of Steven Spielberg’s New Film, Disclosure Day”

Legendary director Steven Spielberg is back with his latest film Disclosure Day, a sci-fi thriller that, like E.T and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, deals with the extraterrestrial. Starring Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor and Colin Firth, it finally hit cinemas this past weekend- but does Spielberg’s blockbuster return live up to expectations?

What’s the plot of Disclosure Day?

Any new film from the most famous director working today will attract attention- and Disclosure Day especially so, with Spielberg’s track record of previous science fiction extravaganzas. It all centres around Josh O’Connor’s character Daniel Kellner, a cyber expert and whistleblower, and Emily Blunt’s Margaret Fairchild, a TV meteorologist whose life is about to change profoundly. Daniel is in on a big secret: that the government and a secretive private company headed by Noah Scanlon (Firth) have been aware of the existence of beings and technologies from another world. He and his ally Hugo (Colman Domingo) want to make it public, but Noah has very different ideas.

Does the cast deliver?

One of Disclosure Day’s biggest strengths is in the performances- it’s hard to think of any miscasts. Josh O’Connor, who’s steadily been building a profile as an everyman character (see his role opposite Daniel Craig in Knives Out threequel Wake Up Dead Man), puts in a particularly solid performance as Daniel. He’s given quite a lot of the film’s runtime and setpieces, which he shares either with his character’s girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) or with Blunt as Margaret. Without getting much into spoilers, I did feel like his part, however, did get a little bit sidelined to the end as we focus more on Margaret, arguably the main character. Which is something of a shame, because O’Connor does play the part well.

One of Disclosure Day’s biggest strengths is in the performances- it’s hard to think of any miscasts.

Speaking of Margaret, Blunt seems to have been drawing the most acclaim from critics and early reaction- which is deserved, given she often has to walk quite a tricky balancing act. We first meet her as a sunny weather lady in Kansas City, who banters with her co-hosts and flashes her smile in an all-American news network way. Her boyfriend is the slightly goofy and serene Jackson (Wyatt Russell), whose concerns about her ambitions to move elsewhere are replaced by worries when Margaret starts exhibiting odd behaviour. She inexplicably can suddenly speak another language, for example, and then forgets she did so a minute later. Blunt has to fire out rapid dialogue frequently as her new behaviour (which may or may not have something to do with aliens) becomes more prominent, but she manages to pull it off flawlessly.

The rest of the cast also delivers strong performances. Firth, who’s been known to play (somewhat brooding) charmers, plays the relentless Noah, who is desperate to stop Daniel from leaking info at any cost. His role is slightly in stereotypical British villain territory (ironic given the lead actors are both English), but he plays it well and is at his very best when he’s icily and piercingly confronting people- often through a telepathic connection that his company Wardex has harnessed from off-world tech.

Domingo, while arguably underutilised, is a wonderful addition to the cast, taking on the role of Daniel’s helping hand and almost-mentor, Hugo. Unfortunately, he often just feels a bit like a phone-a-friend lifeline until the last act, when he comes into his own a bit more, which only boosts the film. Jane, played by Eve Hewson, is a pretty intriguing character as it’s revealed she used to be a nun. This gives the film a bit of space to explore how religion would deal with alien contact, partly due to her conversations with Sister Maura (Elizabeth Marvel). Jane gets the most to do in a tensely drawn-out scene when she’s interrogated by Noah, leading you to wonder which side she’ll take.

Does the film pull it off?

There’s plenty of action in this film, with multiple chase scenes which prove, as always, that Spielberg is a wizard with a camera. There’s also a fair bit of plot and lofty themes, and it’s a little more mixed whether they work. The crucial thing is that, unlike some similar films to this one, I didn’t get bored, and the story moves pretty briskly. There’s an unfolding news story that we get glimpses of in the background as the characters move from point A to B to C, where the world’s powers are slowly spiralling to a big global conflict. This wasn’t elaborated on much, other than to prove that humans are often too focused on fighting with each other than on the bigger picture.

The ending of this film has so far proved quite divisive, and I can see why, though I have mixed opinions. Again, without getting into heavy spoilers, it is a bit anticlimactic, though this seems deliberate. After a lot of build-up, the alien stuff revealed (or disclosed) to us at the end makes the film go a little bit Doctor Who, and perhaps the mysterious marketing was misleading. Disclosure Day doesn’t have the family-friendly alien fun of E.T, nor does it hit the brilliance of Close Encounters, but it’s still an entertaining blockbuster with some very good acting. It may be one that gets debated among audiences, but I’d recommend it as a well-executed, often thrilling film about humans and what we do to others- and ourselves.