Steven Spielberg returns to sci-fi with Disclosure Day, a solid sci-fi thriller that is maybe a bit overlong.
Josh O’Connor stars as Daniel Kellner, a former cybersecurity specialist for Wardex, a secret government agency that has been hiding evidence of alien life. Stealing an archive full of data and a mysterious alien artifact, Daniel goes on the run with his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson). He tries to rendezvous with his ally Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), who is spearheading the effort to release the information to the public. In Kansas City, local meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) begins speaking languages she doesn’t know and seemingly seeing into people’s minds. She and Daniel discover they may be the key to ensuring disclosure happens. Trying to stop them is Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), the head of Wardex, who is willing to push himself to the brink to keep their secrets. One thing I really appreciated about Disclosure Day is that it seemed to really trust the audience to understand its concepts and ideas. The movie actually kicks off with events already in motion. While it does stop to explain a few things, it mostly assumes you can follow along and keep up, like how the alien artifacts work to enable things like “diving” into someone’s mind remotely. The movie does feel like it drags a bit at times, and at close to 2 hours and 30 minutes, it could probably have benefited from a bit of trimming to keep things moving.
It’s definitely more of an old-school thriller, with more tense dialogue and chases than big, spectacle-filled action sequences. There are a couple of action setpieces, but they are fairly brief. I could have gone for at least one or two more, but enough is going on with the plot and the characters to keep things interesting and keep you engaged. There are some questionable decisions by some characters, especially Daniel, but not enough to ruin the movie.
The cast is excellent across the board, with Emily Blunt delivering an incredible performance as Margaret. She goes on a rollercoaster of emotions, ranging from bewilderment to panic-attack-inducing fear, and she is completely compelling in any mode. Josh O’Connor is also great as the reluctant hero who gets saddled with protecting arguably the most important information in human history. Colin Firth is a great villain as Scanlon, who is willing to do anything to keep things under wraps, even if it almost kills him. Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson, and Wyatt Russell deliver solid supporting roles, with Russell bringing some levity as Margaret’s flummoxed musician boyfriend who initially gets dragged along on her mission.
While I wouldn’t put it up there with my favorite Spielberg movies, Disclosure Day is still a very solid and entertaining sci-fi thriller with interesting ideas and concepts, and stellar performances, especially from Emily Blunt.
