Disclosure Day Review: Close Encounters of The Tiresome Kind

Steven Spielberg returns to familiar extraterrestrial territory, but Disclosure Day never quite achieves the emotional lift-off it is aiming for, laments Sreeju Sudhakaran.

Steven Spielberg’s fascination with life beyond our planet needs to be heavily probed (forgive the pun) in some fascinating documentary. He made eternal masterpieces like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial with aliens.

He made the thrilling War of the Worlds that had Tom Cruise run from some terrifying alien machines.

Even in films where they were not truly needed, Spielberg found a way to include aliens. Like A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I was half-disappointed when Tom Hanks did not pull off his mask at the end of The Terminal and reveal himself to be an actual alien instead of a nationless ‘alien’!

Spielberg’s Return to Sci-Fi

So with Steven Spielberg returning to make a science fiction film about aliens and their interactions with humans, it is hard not to feel excited about Disclosure Day.

Except three men kind of ruined his plans.

The first man, Denis Villeneuve, for creating one of the finest films about humans communicating with aliens: Arrival.

The second, Neill Blomkamp, for making an introspective black comedy thriller about what would happen when humans subjugate aliens: District 9.

The third, Donald Trump, for releasing portions of the long-hidden UFO files that, except for some American alien enthusiasts on social media, hardly created much of a ripple in the real world, which had more worrying things to deal with. Like ongoing genocides and the possibility of a world war.

Ironically, there is a similar scene in Disclosure Day where the opposite impact happens. SPOILER ALERT (though the title says it all and so did the final trailer): In that scene, people’s attention is completely diverted from a possible war scenario to footage of real UFO and alien evidence.

I have to say, respect for Spielberg’s blinding optimism about Americans being obsessed with alien life remains undeterred despite real life suggesting otherwise.

So how was Disclosure Day?

In flashes, it has the markings of an awesome Steven Spielberg masterpiece.

As a whole, it leaves you wanting more, but not in a ‘leaving Isla Nublar’ kind of way that makes you crave a return visit even if it means sitting through disappointing sequels.

What’s Disclosure Day About?

Disclosure Day is like a puzzle that begins with half the board already filled in but hasn’t started to make sense yet. By the end, you get the picture, but quite a few pieces still seem to be missing.

The film begins with Daniel (Josh O’Connor), a cybersecurity specialist who once worked for a mysterious government-owned organisation called Wardex. He is on the run with his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson), having stolen several thumb drives as well as a mysterious artifact from the company.

He is trying to reach the man who originally assigned him the mission, Hugo (Colman Domingo), another former Wardex employee, while Wardex’s CEO Noah (Colin Firth) and his team are on hot pursuit to retrieve the stolen material.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, we meet Morgan (Emily Blunt), a weather reporter who finds a cardinal inside her house and begins behaving strangely afterwards. She suddenly starts speaking languages she has never learned, including Russian and Korean. She can read minds simply by looking into people’s eyes, and predict their futures.

During a live news telecast, she begins emitting strange sounds that no one understands. Save for Daniel.

The rest of the film explores the connection between Morgan and Daniel, why Noah wants both of them brought in, and what exactly Hugo’s role is in all this.

The Strengths Of Disclosure Day

As the pre-release marketing suggested, Disclosure Day certainly feels like a spiritual follow-up to Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

If Close Encounters was about people running around trying to uncover the truth about extraterrestrials, Disclosure Day is about people racing to share the truth. Both eventually culminate with that truth revealing itself in all its glory.

However, unlike his fourth directorial feature (fifth, if you count his lost debut Firelight), Spielberg approaches his new film like a political thriller with a dash of Minority Report thrown in.

Does it work?

The approach certainly creates intrigue and suspense in an already puzzling narrative. But the talk-heavy nature of the film, where characters drop exposition at the slightest opportunity and reveal information that rarely lands as shocking, makes it clunky at times, especially during the first half.

Where it really works is when it remains mysterious, particularly everything involving Morgan and her strange abilities.

Some of the humour lands too, especially in the way characters react to the increasingly bizarre developments. Morgan’s nonplussed boyfriend, played by Wyatt Russell, is a good example. The film could have used more of him.

It also has to be said that Emily Blunt is astounding as Morgan. Her performance is easily one of the strongest aspects of the film. Whether she is casually switching between languages or confronting deeply buried trauma, Blunt throws herself fully into the role and reminds us once again of her remarkable range.

Not that the rest of the cast disappoint. Firth, O’Connor, Hewson and Domingo are all excellent. But Blunt towers above them all.

Spielberg also reminds us how effective he remains at creating suspense. The sequences where Noah telepathically controls a certain character through an alien artifact are genuinely tense.

Then he drops in a couple of thrilling action set-pieces that shake off the lethargy that has gradually begun creeping into the film.

A car chase involving Daniel crashing into a house before speeding away.

A train sequence that will almost certainly push you to the edge of your seat.

Both are energetically edited by Spielberg’s longtime collaborator Sarah Broshar.

Janusz Kamiński also goes wild with the camerawork. There is one particularly impressive tracking shot where the camera follows Daniel as he sneaks towards a house, glides through a hedge and continues tracking him seamlessly from the other side.

Unanswered Questions

What does not work quite as well are some of the film’s loftier ideas. They sound interesting in theory, but clunky conversations and occasionally awkward dialogue prevent them from fully landing.

Take Jane, raised as a Catholic, wondering whether the existence of aliens would make people question God. Gosh, woman, have you seen the state of this place even with billions already believing in God?

Or Hugo passionately arguing that empathy is the universal language and that its absence is driving humanity towards extinction. Nice mic-drop moment. But it becomes a little too verbose for its own good.

For a film called Disclosure Day, it also leaves a surprising number of questions unanswered.

Why are Daniel and Morgan the ‘chosen ones’?

What exactly is the deal with the three alien MacGuffins (Spielberg loves MacGuffins almost as much as he loves aliens)? Their powers appear to function according to whatever the screenplay requires at any given moment.

Why are the villains so oddly non-violent in their attempts to suppress the truth? Colin Firth is excellent as the main antagonist, but his motivations remain murky and his eventual resolution is rather confusing.

John Williams Lifts a Divisive Climax

Let’s come to the movie’s biggest USP: The extra-terrestrials.

Although Disclosure Day is exactly about aliens, Spielberg keeps them largely hidden until the climax.

You catch a brief glimpse of them in some footage early on, but for most of the film their presence is suggested through weird occurrences and CGI animals.

This restraint is clearly intended to maximise their impact during the finale, where the film finally lives up to its title.

Yet, more than the aliens themselves, what elevates this entire portion is Spielberg’s decision to bring back his 93-year-old favourite composer John Williams. The maestro lifts the third act with a captivating score, even if the movie lacks one of his trademark melodic hooks.

But it is with a heavy heart that I must admit the sequence as a whole did not work for me.

The climax felt far too convenient how the protagonists arrive at that point; while the revelations that follow are intriguing, they never truly surprise because the film has been steering towards them all along.

The melodramatic manner in which the world reacts to the ‘truths’ being dropped also lessens the impact. Particularly grating is a television news anchor who becomes overwhelmingly emotional on air. Hope she displayed the same level of anguish while reporting on the millions dying in the war she had been covering earlier.

Disclosure Day‘s kind of ending worked beautifully in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind when the spacecraft hovered above Devil’s Tower.

Here, Spielberg tries a little too hard to make the alien reveal more enthralling than the moment demanded (and to add to the annoyance, the film ends with an infuriating cliffhanger).

Sorry, Spielbergji. Unfortunately, we live in a world where files exposing powerful people abusing and cannibalising children are far more concerting than any hidden file involving aliens.