With: Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Elizabeth Marvel, Hettienne Park, Tommy Martinez, Gabby Beans, Jeremy Shamos, Elliot Villar, Noah Robbins, Michael Gaston
Written by: David Koepp, based on a story by Steven Spielberg
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for action/violence, some bloody images and strong language
Director Steven Spielberg returns to familiar territory with the dazzling sci-fi tale Disclosure Day, packed with adventure, wonder, and food for thought, as well as fine cinematography, music, and performances.
Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor) prepares to make a trade: a backpack full of stolen USB drives for his kidnapped girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson). Using a strange device, he manages to turn the tables and escape with both the backpack and Jane. Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), who runs the sinister Wardex Corporation, uses a similar device to try to track Daniel down. Daniel must be clever to stay two jumps ahead.
Meanwhile, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), who reads the weather on a Kansas City news program, has an encounter that changes her. She's able to read what people are thinking, and when the camera turns on her, she speaks a language that no one has heard before… that is, except Daniel. Both Margaret and Daniel must get to a secret safe space and in the care of Hugo (Colman Domingo) — a former colleague of Noah's — where a special ritual is waiting to be performed.
A sort of cousin to Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Disclosure Day lands at the same level as those classics, but it's different, more grown-up perhaps, or more world-weary. Written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds), the new movie makes a case for treating aliens (immigrants) with curiosity and compassion (one character makes a case for empathy being a crucial factor of human evolution) rather than vilifying or attacking them.
Yet it also wonders — if humans were to find out definitively that we were not alone in the universe — what would the effect be? Would we see world peace or world panic? (Faith is also discussed in a thoughtful way.) When the movie isn't making us think or wowing us with moments of unexplained mystery, it's gripping us with chases, escapes, and a particularly cool stunt involving a car and a train.
Colin Firth doesn't add much dimension to his villainous CEO, and there are some curious choices about how the news media operates, but we're generally so swept up that it's easy to forgive these things. Josh O'Connor continues to prove himself an immensely likable leading man, but it's Emily Blunt that steals the show. It's difficult to explain her performance without giving things away, but she does some heavy lifting and makes it look easy.
With Disclosure Day, Spielberg once again proves that he is a master of storytelling, of emotion, and of getting us to see things in a slightly different way.
