Matt Konopka reviews ‘Disclosure Day’, a spellbinding sci-fi adventure that reminds us Spielberg is still the king of summer blockbusters.
There’s just something about Steven Spielberg and aliens. Over his illustrious career, the legendary filmmaker has tackled the sci-fi subgenre a handful of times. First, in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a gorgeous film in which mankind communicates with an extraterrestrial species through music. Then the film that made every kid fall in love with aliens was E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Next, a darker take on the creatures, befitting of the early aughts, in a remake of War of the Worlds. Try as some might, who can forget their appearance in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? And finally, this weekend, Disclosure Day, marks a long-awaited return to the enchanting wonder that Spielberg does best.
David Koepp‘s script drops us right into the proverbial frying pan with Daniel (Josh O’Connor) on the run from a secret government agency led by Noah (Colin Firth). Daniel has stolen a treasure trove of files that reveal the existence of aliens on Earth…information that Noah and the agency wish to keep quiet by any means necessary. Meanwhile, weatherwoman Margaret (Emily Blunt) suffers an on-air event where she suddenly speaks in an alien language, then wakes up to discover she knows anything about anyone just by looking at them. They aren’t aware of each other yet, but she and Daniel share a bond pulling them together. Each knows that they must reach Hugo (Coleman Domingo), the man who can tell them things about themselves even they haven’t learned. Their mission: prove to the world all at once that aliens exist, and we need not be afraid.
I keep thinking of something Spielberg said in the final Disclosure Day trailer. “I used to say to myself, wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of this turned out to be true? I’m now thinking, wouldn’t it be wonderful for people to know all of this is true?” As I mentioned above, the filmmaker has long had an interest in aliens and the life that we share this universe with. Through most of those films, he’s expressed his trademark ability to envelop audiences with an awestruck wonder. His movies mesmerize. They spellbind. They stop us in our tracks and remind us not just of the marvel that the best stories hold, but the magic of life, in general. Disclosure Day has all of those things. It is Spielberg at his most sincere, his most human, his most excited to share with us that we are not alone…and that that’s a beautiful thing.
Led by a cast that abducts the soul, we’re whisked away on a thrilling journey overflowing with emotion pouring out of it like the bright lights of that spacecraft in Close Encounters. Both Daniel and Margaret find their lives completely upended, struggling to communicate with others what is either happening to them or has been happening to them. Margaret’s boyfriend, Jackson (Wyatt Russell), simply doesn’t believe her. Daniel’s girlfriend (who was almost a nun), Jane (Eve Hewson), thinks learning the truth will destroy faith in God and send the world into a panic. And that right there is the crux of Disclosure Day. It’s a film about faith. About what we believe, want to believe, can’t possibly imagine. How would the world react to the discovery of aliens? That’s the question Spielberg poses…one he answers with the comforting voice of a father figure as he warmly assures, it’ll be okay.
Spielberg’s infectious sincerity, per usual, is what makes Disclosure Day so spellbinding. Blunt and O’Connor each steal your breath away with heartrending performances that should get the most cynical viewer to stir, if ever so slightly. But Spielberg does the impossible here. Our actual reaction to more evidence pointing to alien life has resulted in little more than a shoulder shrug. That might change if we saw the aliens themselves, but we’ve been, at the very least, distracted. A subplot about a potential WWIII scenario lurks in the background of the film…not all that dissimilar to where we are now. Yet, Spielberg reminds us of the joy we should have at such a revelation. The empathy we must have for other species and each other. Because what’s the point of any of this if we don’t?
Now, that’s not going to play with everyone. I’m an emotional guy. I don’t think empathy is the laughable word it’s been made out to be these days. I want earnestness and wonder in my movies. But let’s face it, we do live in a world that’s lacking in those things right now. I’d imagine a good handful of you will watch this film and find it twenty years too late. And I’d be lying if I said there isn’t a bit of a papa Spielberg vibe to it. You have to be willing to suspend disbelief that the characters would go through so many trials and tribulations to share the information the way they do, when they could just upload it to the internet at any moment. Yet, I think that’s the point. Because the internet has become mostly meaningless with so much misinformation and hate. Humans all witnessing something magical together at the same moment though…now that’s a level of connection I bet many of us yearn for these days. I sure do. It may be fiction, it may be brief, but Spielberg gives us that.
Sure, Disclosure Day is a movie we could’ve used years ago, but it’s still the movie we need right now.
And for those of you who think I’m making the film sound too sappy, don’t worry. Disclosure Day is the most thrilling Spielberg film since Munich. One chase scene in particular had me all the way on the edge of my seat, jumping a little each time I thought things were about to go terribly wrong. After all, this is an adventure movie. The sort of summer blockbuster that Spielberg created with Jaws back in the 70s. It hits the ground running, and it never stops running until the final moments. Do the thrills reach the level of, say, Jurassic Park? No. Few do. But it does prove Spielberg still has plenty of juice left in the tank. Frequent filmgoers probably won’t be surprised by most of Disclosure Day’s revelations that we’ve seen many times before, but damn if he isn’t still the king of blockbuster thrills.
I don’t know if Spielberg will ever make another film about aliens. But I can say that, after Disclosure Day, he doesn’t need to. The filmmaker’s latest feels like a comforting close to his legacy in exploring extraterrestrial life. A final word on the subject. One that says, yes, aliens are real. They are here. We need not be afraid. Put aside our differences, our senseless wars, and recognize that there is so much more out there than us. And that is an extraordinarily wondrous and beautiful thing.
Disclosure Day lands in theaters on June 12th via Universal.
