Disclosure Day Review – Just a Normal Forecast

It may be premature to say, but Disclosure Day will likely go down as one of the messier blockbusters of this decade. At times exhilarating, charmingly weird, and propulsive is also a movie that feels frustrating, rushed, and bizarrely reserved. That’s a lot of adjectives to describe one movie, but Disclosure Day is bursting at the seams with its thoughts on various themes, yet we can take issue with the way many of those themes are addressed. It’s a movie that, strangely, feels less than the sum of its parts. Emily Blunt turns in a heavily committed performance to something of a juggling act lead role, and the film as a whole refrains from going over the top with CGI fireworks to focus on something more intellectual and internal. Yet, by movie’s end, you can’t help but feel there’s something missing, and that you’ve perhaps completed a film with shared DNA of a rerun, even as the picture lobbies to convince you that you’re witnessing an entirely new experience.

The film begins in medias res, as Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) is on the run from a mysterious organization. He has stolen equipment from the government, technology of which he promises holds the revelation of extraterrestrial life. Meanwhile, meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Blunt) is in the midst of a mid-career crisis, feeling unfulfilled in the relatively quaint town of Kansas City. Her career dilemma is interrupted when she begins experiencing strange phenomena, imbued with the abilities of telepathy and speaking in languages she’s never learned. Though they’re on different pathways, it’s not long before Daniel and Margaret’s paths cross, revealing forgotten secrets and a century-long cover-up of extraterrestrial contact.

The acting is strong across the board, occasionally showcasing great efforts. Josh O’Connor has been pointed out as the weak link here; to be fair, it is a rather un-glamorous part that is also saddled with heavy exposition duties. But O’Connor’s performance struggles to stand out because it’s so understated in the face of such charismatic turns from his co-stars. The screenplay also has him setup as something of a flat character, that barely changes over the course of his arc. Blunt, by contrast, gets the real juicy material, and to her credit fully embraces this bizarre role of mile-a-minute conversation and linguistics flexibility. She makes her scenes easy to invest in, partially because you don’t quite know what she’ll say next or how she’ll react to the next bodily metamorphosis. Colman Domingo and Eve Hewson turn in strong support work. Meanwhile, Colin Firth plays an antagonist with a traumatic history, but I came away not feeling like we extracted the most we could out of his performance. Admittedly, his character plays sort of second fiddle to a lot of other fantastical elements, especially in the 3rd act, but many of his scenes left me wanting more.

It is near impossible to talk about this film in totality without acknowledging the massive presence looming over the production – from director Steven Spielberg. The industry giant still has a lot left in the tank, and Disclosure Day has shades of some of the director’s signature repertoire.  But that sentiment is perhaps an unusual catch-22: some of the movie’s best attributes are familiar techniques, best known in more famous and iconic films. Thus, Disclosure Day has the habit of feeling like a mashup of signature science fiction tropes and alien movie hoopla. So much of the film’s DNA comes off as well-worn ideas – the advisement to not fear the unknown just because it is different. The positioning of the government as the actual antagonists. A forgotten childhood secret holding the answers to the protagonists’ dilemma. An re-contextualization of faith in an attempt to inspire hope. The familiarity of the movie is a unique topic of discussion precisely due to the director helming the movie, and how these familar ideas have been staples of Spielberg’s filmography for 50 years.

On the one hand, clearly these topics are very important to him, and the desire to have the audience leave feeling hopeful is an admirable goal. Yet, for all the maneuvering amongst the characters, and the sheer reverence said characters use to talk about the movie’s revelations, by film’s end we’ve reached a destination that feels already traversed. It wouldn’t be without merit to suggest that Disclosure Day accomplishes a reminiscent cinematic feat, and leaves one with a similar message, to that of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) half a century ago. Perhaps that is purely intentional, as the films are no doubt in some dialogue with each other, given that they share a director. But for a modern audience, one that has seen a mask slip, in regards to world governments lowering the veil a bit on their knowledge of alien life, Disclosure Day can come off as quaint and a bit of déjà vu.

The film’s look at times resemble that of a JJ Abrams movie, with frenetic editing and even a few appearances of lens flare. The cinematography has a cold aesthetic, which thematically is in concert with the feelings of paranoia and fear surrounding the government cover-up. However, as a consequence, some of the shots and sets feel a bit bland, drained of its color and vibrancy in exchange for a feeling of modernity. The CGI animals, of which there are plenty, crossover into the uncanny valley, with effects that wouldn’t feel out of place in The Polar Express (2004) or The Golden Compass (2007). Yet, there are flourishes where we get glimpses of the old Spielberg; fancy shot compositions with athletic camera movements around the frame. There’s even one such shot that moves upside down as it captures the relatively mundane task of a character accessing vital information on a laptop, at which point the movie just seems to be showing off.

Ultimately, the film’s has many individual aspects working in its favor, but perhaps doesn’t blend together as well as you’d like in one big pot of stew. It often feels like a redux of prior works, coming up short on offering a new perspective or emotion that could ensure this film’s status as an iconic classic. There’s a world where Disclosure Day is remembered as a lesser entry for a filmmaker that has long since not had anything to prove to us, or as a misunderstood gem that will gain in reverence. Or somewhere in between, only time will tell.