Didn’t government officials already admit there have been alien sightings on Earth?
Knowing as much undercuts most of Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day,” an old-school drama that retraces some of the tracks he plowed with “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and other alien-heavy films.
Emily Blunt in "Disclosure Day."
When he gets to the titular situation, we wonder why Emily Blunt needs to be at a TV station to tell the world. Couldn’t a social media post be just as viral?
There’s a series of chases that ring false, too, particularly since a cellphone could track most people immediately.
Still, Spielberg knows how to pull us in and make us care about the folks in jeopardy.
Colin Firth plays the head of a shady agency who uses alien technology for nefarious purposes in "Disclosure Day."
Here, it’s cybersecurity specialist Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) who has info from the Wardex Corporation that could crack this wide open. When authorities discover his deed, they go on the hunt (shades of “E.T.”) and learn he’s hiding out in a convent with his girlfriend (Eve Hewson), a former novitiate. When Blunt’s Margaret Fairchild begins speaking in gibberish (she is, after all, a meteorologist), he can understand what she’s saying and realizes he has to connect. They’ve got the goods to crack this wide open.
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Daniel (Josh O'Connor) helps Margaret (Emily Blunt) through a stressful situation in Steven Spielberg's sci-fi thriller "Disclosure Day."
Of course, there are Wardex folks who want to silence them. Colin Firth, as the company’s slimy head, has a way to project into the homes of those he’s trying to silence. Kellner, however, has a friend on the inside (Colman Domingo) who acts as his conscience and comforter.
Together, they plot the big D-Day reveal and manage to get in some of those Spielberg hallmarks — including a chase scene that isn’t slick or assured.
Emily Blunt stars as a TV meteorologist who begins to realize strange abilities as well as truths about herself in "Disclosure Day."
Blunt is a good get, particularly since she doesn’t serve as O’Connor’s plus-one. She’s just as vital and manages emotion without relying on familiar tropes to prompt the tears. O’Connor isn’t in the Chris Pratt/Timothee Chalamet mix of likely leading men. But he makes the mission tenuous and worthy.
When the showdown comes, it’s nothing we haven’t seen, but it is satisfying. That’s what Spielberg consistently produces. In the early years, he surprised.
Now, he reassures.
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"Disclosure Day" is in theaters now.
