David R. Walker

Disclosure Day

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Elizabeth Marvel, Tommy Martinez

Running Time: 2 hours and 25 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp collaborates again with Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) in his new film Disclosure Day which is a strange mix of a 1980’s action movie and a weird throwback to Spielberg’s earlier 1977 alien film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

On one level, Disclosure Day is extremely well made with beautiful cinematography with long-time collaborator Oscar winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) and features some extraordinary scenes particularly the train sequence when the two main leads Margaret Fairchild brilliantly played by Oscar nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) and Dr Daniel Kellner played by Josh O’Connor (Challengers, God’s Own Country) are escaping some gun tottering government agents.

In Disclosure Day, the aliens are not out there in the galaxy but they have already arrived on earth and they have two human emissaries: the weather girl from Kansas City, Margaret and the young and hot headed Daniel Kellner. British actor Josh O’Connor does well in a big budget blockbuster as the male lead and has sufficient screen time with Emily Blunt and his former co-star Oscar winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) who he starred in together in the British period drama Mothering Sunday back in 2021.

Firth plays Noah Scanlon, the leader of a shady organization with links to the government who is intent on keeping the alien existence secret from the rest of the world.

Luckily the headstrong Margaret, a feisty weather girl from Kansas City who suddenly develops telepathic powers and dumps her guitar loving blonde boyfriend Jackson played by Wyatt Russell, son of Hollywood stars Golden Hawn and Kurt Russell, as she goes on a mission to meet up with Daniel and his girlfriend Jane played by Irish actress Eve Hewson (Bridge of Spies, Robin Hood).

As Daniel and Margaret rush to the location of Hugo Wakefield played by Oscar nominee Colman Domingo (Rustin, Sing Sing), who is committed to exposing the truth about the existence of extraterritorial life forms, Scanlon and his private army try to eliminate the couple before the imminent disclosure.

Audiences must remember that this is all set in the Midwest – Missouri to be exact in a film featuring mostly a British cast. Disclosure Day starts off exceptionally promising with the usual Spielberg flourishes which made such films as War of the Worlds and Minority Report so brilliant.

Unfortunately, David Koepp’s script goes off the reservation when the actual moment of disclosure occurs in a world filled with instant news. The critical moment of Margaret telling the world about the existence of aliens lacks the profundity required to make Disclosure Day memorable.

The narrative becomes weird and characters start falling off the screenplay never to be seen again. There is even deer, wolves and aliens that appear in strange wheelchairs….

Disclosure Day has a great director, an adequate cast but the narrative is clunky and unsubtle. It becomes too literal and obvious which is done to appease an American audience.

Disclosure Day gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is an enjoyable film but not ground-breaking. Spielberg needed a better scriptwriter and a more American cast if the entire film is set in the Mid-West.

It’s not believable that a weather girl from Kansas City would become the chosen one for representatives of E.T. Recommended viewing but not essential.

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