Full Disclosure: No Spoilers!
Full disclosure: there will be no spoilers or plot details in this review. I don’t actually think there’s a lot to spoil in Disclosure Day, but I went in as blind as possible and I think that’s the best way to take it all in even if it ends up disappointing. So there will be no plot synopsis or scene recaps for this review. I’m going to talk around the film instead of directly to it, and we’ll get into more of its themes, messaging, and craft than character names, plot points and other elements that could spoil something for someone.
Another full disclosure: I believe Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest living directors of our time. He may even be on of the greatest directors ever, and I certainly wouldn’t fault anyone for putting him on their Mount Rushmore of filmmakers. He works are some of the influential films in history, pillars of their genre and inspirations for countless directors and storytellers. Spielberg has always imbued his films with a sense of wonder and curiosity paired with unbridled optimism. Aliens and technology are almost always captured with an undeterred belief in humanity, and he has rarely shied away from getting a little dark before injecting a bright light of hope at the end of the adventure tunnel.
Even The Greats Can Disappoint
Yes, even his lesser works are works of art and better than most movies, which is why it pains me so much to say that Disclosure Day is a major misfire for me and Spielberg. I don’t subscribe to the idea of giving the greats a pass, and I won’t do that here. I think the greats should be held accountable and Disclosure Day doesn’t do enough to blind me from its missteps.
It sees him operating in a different mindset than before, his sci-fi stories a reflection of his perspective shift that comes with age. And just as the man behind the camera must age, so must his ideas. I’m perfectly fine with Spielberg growing up, but Disclosure Day is held back by a script that can’t wrap its arms around his ideas and themes. David Koepp’s script is the culprit here, unable to translate the film’s core premise and failing to give us fleshed out characters worth following in what is ostensibly a chase film.
What If vs What Now
Last full disclosure: my disappointment of Disclosure Day has nothing to do with a lack of big, giant, alien invasion spectacle or direct connections to E.T or Close Encounters of The Third Kind. Those are bad takes and like Spielberg himself, it’s time to grow up. No, my disappointment stems from something deeper, a seismic shift in the way in which he views the world told from a screenplay that simply can’t convey this properly. Disclosure Day sheds Spielberg’s trademark curiosity of what if and is more interested in what now, trading out wonder and mystery for stock conspiracy thriller trappings and an assertion that this fantasy world is real so what are we as human beings gonna do about it?
The answer in Disclosure Day is in stark contrast to the world its trying to reflect, and sadly the fantasy elements clash against the mirrored reality portrayed in the film. This makes it hard to buy into its more hopeful premise that humanity can be saved. It’s admiral to look around and want to deliver a message of our need for connection and unity over division and isolation, but Disclosure Day is too messy of a package to make this assertion potent. It’s more eye roll inducing that exhilarating, and left me thinking “Sure, aliens are real but have you SEEN the price of groceries?” I would love nothing more than to have faith in humanity the way Spielberg wants us to, but I simply don’t and Disclosure Day isn’t developed enough or exciting enough to cause me to turn that frown upside down.
Excellent Direction and Lead Performance
When it comes to directing, Spielberg is all the way in his bag. One can never accuse him of having a boring frame, the camera constantly moving and placed in ways only the greats can pull from their mind’s eye onto the big screen. He’s such a dynamic filmmaker, and when he’s cooking Disclosure Day – at least visually – is incredibly compelling and interesting to look at. The man knows big action spectacle, and if for nothing else it’s always a pleasure to watch one of the greats work in their visual wheelhouse.
Spielberg also knows how to get the best out of his performers, with Emily Blunt delivering a career best. She’s incredible here, elevating every silly line on the page and working overtime to be a proper audience surrogate. Disclosure Day is Blunt’s movie through and through, and while everyone else is doing the best they can, it’s really only Blunt who is able to overcome the script’s many, many shortcomings. She’s doing far more than the writing deserves, layering a surface level character and mining immense depth from a character that doesn’t have nearly any. She’s also really funny, and Disclosure Day let’s her run wild with every strength she has as a performer.
The Rest of the Cast Does Their Best With Very Little
I’m quite a fan of Josh O’Connor, and he’s doing the most with what he’s given even when it’s not a lot. His character is purposefully an enigma, but I found him to be far more reactionary and stifled than interesting and fleshed out. Everyone else is fine, Coleman Domingo always on the top of his game and Colin Firth doing his best Bezos/Musk techno fascist villain. The film is littered with needless character fluff, people only existing because conspiracy thriller tropes say they have to be included.
Characters like Wyatt Russell and Eve Hewson feel like stock stand ins, existing simply because the genre with which Disclosure Day exists in requires them to be there. It’s a writing issue more than a performance one, and I don’t want to discredit their efforts. Both Russell and Hewson – like O’Connor – are doing everything they can in roles that gives them nothing more than cardboard cutouts to work off of.
The Culprit is David Koepp
I know it’s crazy to be so down on a film this well directed, well performed, and well shot, but Disclosure Day is a major testament to how important the script is to a film. A bad screenplay can undo the best of intentions in storytelling, and Disclosure Day is at the bottom end of Koepp’s rollercoaster ride of diverse works. He’s not new to collaborating with Spielberg, which makes it all the more baffling that he whiffs so hard in conveying his ideas. The writing is deeply silly and none of the characters feel like real people. Even in a sci-fi fantasy thriller, every character is written as a plot mover instead of a fully realized person. Koepp treats them all like chess pieces; they have names and direction but lack any depth beyond that.
An alien chase film should feel exhilarating and enthralling because we care about the people being pursued and fear the pursuers. Sadly, Disclosure Day’s characters are hard to invest in – unraveled by an iv drip of exposition and kept at a distance – and the pursuers are the most incompetent evil corporation henchmen I’ve ever seen. Yes, even for a Spielberg film. No one is ever actually outsmarted in Disclosure Day because everyone in pursuit are downright stupid, sucking all of the tension out of every single chase and confrontation. So even when Spielberg is doing amazing things on screen visually, I was hard pressed to care about it in practice.
Final Thoughts
Look, I understand that Disclosure Day is about the power of empathy and a manifesto of faith in people. It looks past believing in aliens and asks us to believe in ourselves again. Spielberg is directly stating that movies – storytelling – is a universal language and our shared experience of cinema can unite us all. Hell, Blunt and Domingo’s characters are literally extentions of Spielberg himself, the director of those stories cursed with knowledge but willing to disclose them to the world so it can heal. It’s Spielberg at his most reflective, serving as a culmination of 50 years of alien interest in his filmography and asserting his conclusions to the world as his…wait for it…full disclosure.
It’s not even about aliens as much as it’s about humanity, which would be really compelling if the writing was better. I want to believe, Steve. I really, really do. But Disclosure Day just can’t overcome its scripted shortcomings to land these ideas as hard as intended. Disclosure Day rests on reveals and seeks to restore hope in humanity, but if the revelation is that aliens exist and what should we do about it, then maybe the world has broken my spirit too much because that’s just not enough.
Inside of us there are two Spielbergs – the what if and the what now, and I guess I had hoped that his final conclusion about aliens – or really humanity – had more of both of them.
