Disclosure Day is a movie about aliens in much the same way as your average Mission: Impossible movie was about whatever was on the USB everyone was rushing around trying to grab. Aliens are what drives the story, but they're not what the story is about. Unfortunately, while the M:I movies eventually figured out that what they were about were insane stunts that were fun to watch, Disclosure Day is often about running around a lot while only moving forward a little.
That said, being directed by Steven Spielberg does mean that much of that running around is firmly entertaining, and every now and again he throws in a quality action sequence to perk things up. But for much of the running time this falls between two (or more) stools, as the plot never quite comes together while never really using its slipshod nature to throw in some entertaining curveballs.
Half the story is about whistleblower Daniel (Josh O'Connor, taking it seriously), on the run with a treasure trove of data covering decades of alien encounters. With him is Jane (Eve Hewson), his girlfriend who proves to be both asset and liability; pursuing him is a corporate entity known as Wardex, led by a very hands-on Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), who aside from running a giant organisation and having dismissive meetings with military top brass is also the only one who can successfully use the alien tech they have stashed away.
The other half of the story is about weatherwoman Margaret (Emily Blunt, keeping it light), who is hoping to move up to real reporting but who seems a little frazzled for that kind of responsibility. Then she becomes multi-lingual, develops the ability to sense - and solve - other people's issues, starts speaking a weird alien language live on air, and ends up in the sights of Wardex. Fortunately her new psychic skills turn out to be an advantage in these situations.
They run around a lot across rural America before their paths cross, and there's even more running after that. Being on the run does get a little repetitive, though the bursts of action spice things up and keep the tension relatively high. More of a problem is the lack of any real menace from Wardex, though Scanlon does get one pretty creepy scene of long-distance psychic manipulation, which suggests a much scarier and more paranoid film then the one we get.
There's also the occasional discussion as to whether revealing the truth about aliens is a good idea. This is largely couched in religious terms, where the big question is "what happens if aliens replace God in human society?" Even the characters in the film don't really take this seriously as a proposition, though some aliens are tortured and die off-camera for our sins.
It's not a problem that this ends up being much more about the characters than the aliens. It is a problem that it ends up being about these characters, as for plot reasons their backgrounds are largely hidden for much of the film in a way that makes them feel a little thinly sketched. The performances are all good (Blunt is often in comedy mode, and is the better for it), but for a character-based drama as this turns out to largely be, these characters are lacking.
With the alien side of things being surprisingly traditional, the most interesting material here is on the fringes. The world is moving to the brink of war but it's only glimpsed here and there; the alien encounters are dream-like and fragmentary; Margaret's boyfriend Jackson (Wyatt Russell) is the most likable character here but his role diminishes as things progress.
Oh, and the big ending is the one point where this film takes a big swing; it's also something you could cut out (or just end the film right before it happens) and not really change the story we've just been told.
President Nixon getting drunk and wanting to impress a 50s TV star with a freezer full of alien corpses is pretty funny though.
- Anthony Morris
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