by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $11.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Elizabeth Marvel
Intro:
Overlong, ponderous, goofy and only occasionally enjoyable …
It’s no exaggeration to say that Steven Spielberg is one of the best and most influential directors of all time. His filmography contains a staggering number of red-hot bangers: Duel (1971), Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Empire of the Sun (1987), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), War of the Worlds (2005) and many, many more. The bloke has knocked out an outrageous number of all-time classics. He has also, it has to be said, been responsible for more than a couple of stinkers along the way. 1941 (1979), Hook (1991) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) are but a sample of some of the black marks on Spielberg’s record. That latter example is the most germane here, as we’re talking about his latest flick Disclosure Day. Once again, the 79-year-old legend of cinema returns to one of his favourite topics: aliens. Now, said subject gave us Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, two absolutely wonderful films. But aliens also crept into Crystal Skull and the results were significantly less stellar. So, how does Disclosure Day – a film that reunites Spielberg with longtime collaborators screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Crystal Skull) and composer John Williams (Jaws, Raiders) – stack up to the maestro’s earlier work?
Not well, friends. Not well at all.
Disclosure Day is the story of two apparently unconnected individuals. You’ve got Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor), a cybersecurity expert turned whistleblower who is on the run from the nefarious Wardex corporation with a backpack full of secrets, and Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), an ambitious weather lady on Kansas City television who inexplicably gains strange abilities one day, like being able to speak fluent Korean and light mind-reading.
Margaret, in particular, has little understanding of what’s going on and before she knows it, has become a target of Wardex and its sinister boss man, Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth). Of course, Daniel and Maggie have a connection that they can’t possibly imagine, and a huge-reality changing secret about extraterrestrial life to share with the world, if only they can survive long enough to disclose it.
There’s nothing wrong with the premise of Disclosure Day. It’s a solid little mystery thriller conceit, with loads of potential. The problem is with almost everything else. Beginning in media res, Koepp’s script desperately wants us to feel a sense of danger and urgency as our main characters participate in a seemingly endless game of cat and mouse with Wardex goons. Unfortunately, the antagonists are such incompetent boobs that they never feel terribly threatening and if the stakes get too high, never mind, Mags will just develop a new power to get them out of whatever sticky situation they find themselves in. The runtime of this thing doesn’t help either, we’re talking 2+ hours here, where the bulk of the action is fleeing, getting caught, escaping and then fleeing all over again. And again.
And again.
On the plus side, the acting is mostly very good. O’Connor and Blunt are both likable protagonists with the latter doing fine work as always. Colman Domingo and Wyatt Russell are both solid in important supporting roles and Eve Hewson is good as Daniel’s girlfriend, even if her character is wildly inconsistent. Firth, oddly, is much less successful as Scanlon, never quite achieving the sense of menace required to make the role sing. However, the real dud here is the script. Koepp just can’t seem to find the magic in this story and the narrative moves from dull to absurd to mawkish and back to dull again. Even worse, Spielberg’s direction feels strangely flat and unengaged for most of the flick. The lighting is washed out, the action scenes merely competent and while the climax is a little more dynamic, it’s a shadow of similarly themed films that he’s done before. Hell, even Williams’ score feels oddly phoned in, as uninspired as everything that surrounds it.
Look, we were all rooting for Disclosure Day. A return to subject matter covered so brilliantly by one of our best directors. With a sense of optimism and hope for humanity’s future featuring a stacked cast. Yes please, mate! Unfortunately, the resulting film is a baffling misfire and squanders the oodles of potential here. Overlong, ponderous, goofy and only occasionally enjoyable, Disclosure Day sadly joins the ranks of the lesser entries in Spielberg’s otherwise impressive canon.
