Disclosure Day
Cybersecurity expert Dr. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) works for WARDEX, a government aligned agency which has been protecting evidence of alien existence since the Roswell incident of 1947, but when he discovers a connection to Kansas City television weather journalist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) that dates back to their childhood, the two force a worldwide "Disclosure Day."
Laura's Review: B+
Steven Spielberg vies for his old summer blockbuster glory with a film that exhibits his exceptional craft but not a lot of narrative depth (screenplay by David Koepp based on an idea from Spielberg). This one plays like a greatest hits package with callbacks to "E.T.'s" hissable alien experimentation, "Close Encounters'" unique form of communication (and that riveting train crossing scene), the mind reading powers of "Minority Report" and the Disney animation influence in "A.I." all wrapped up in a race-against-time action thriller. While the film leaves some big questions unanswered, its ending a "Close Encounters" like suggestion, Spielberg still knows how to stage heart-stopping action and give us characters to care about.
After Daniel Kellner and his precious backpack full of thumb drives is lured in by WARDEX CEO Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) by kidnapping his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson, "Flora and Son"), he manages to escape using one of three alien artifacts known only as 'the device,' something which Scanlon has been risking his life to master. Scanlon immediately turns to his own, but he cannot enter Daniel's thoughts, turning to Jane in order to track their location. Meanwhile Kellner is being advised by another former WARDEX employee, Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), to get to somewhere safe and Jane has the surprising answer - the convent where she was once a novitiate. Guided to a safe house by Hugo after they are located, Daniel goes outside to make a phone call, leaving Jane alone to be confronted by Scanlon via the device, ordering her to stop him 'by any means.'
Meanwhile, in Kansas City, Margaret Fairchild is getting ready for work while urging her boyfriend Jackson (Wyatt Russell, "Thunderbolts*") to check out her audition tape for an anchor position when a cardinal flies into their apartment, landing on their kitchen table. Maggie is transfixed and once Jackson shoos the bird out, she begins speaking to him in fluent Russian. But when he questions it she doesn't appear to know what he is talking about and rushes out. Pulled over for speeding, she inexplicably advises the policeman with details about his personal life before running into the studio, speaking Korean to an interview subject, getting in front of a weather map and issuing a bizarre series of clicks and pops, then collapsing to the ground. When 'the F.B.I.' shows up at the hospital, Maggie insists on fleeing, but her talk about a Daniel Kellner and having to head north come across as symptoms to Jackson, who calls the hospital when they stop at a gas station. When he emerges, Maggie and the car are gone.
All of this is set against a world on the verge of WWIII, something only hinted at around the edges of the frame via newscasts in Kansas, Maggie's language quirks and panic shopping at that gas station's convenience store. And yes, Spielberg shows us his aliens, Daniel taking Jane into his confidence by showing her what's on a couple of his thumb drives, one featuring Richard Nixon and Jackie Gleeson viewing aliens in a morgue like some kind of bizarre entertainment, the other difficult to watch. Koepp introduces a devil's advocate by means of Jane's past, the woman arguing that people of faith will be grappling with Biblical contradictions, something he resolves later in the film via the delightful Sister Maura (Elizabeth Marvel, 2010's "True Grit," "Swallow").
What is more difficult to buy is the motivation for Scanlon's villainy and while Daniel keeps repeating that this hidden knowledge 'belongs to eight billion people,' it is left to us to connect the dots with how its revelation will affect global order, a major clue given by Hugo's confrontation with Scanlon. Along the way, Spielberg stages some very effective action scenes, one involving Daniel driving through a house, another featuring Scanlon's right hand Casper Boyd (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) attempting to ram Daniel and Maggie's vehicle into a speeding train. Production design covers a lot of ground, from childhood homes to alien crash sites (leading us to wonder why, if these aliens are so superior, they keep crashing). Special effects deliver several UFOs, some slightly off (by design) animal representations and aliens inspired by Roswell lore. John Williams' score is surprisingly nondescript without any memorable themes.
Blunt does unique work here, morphing in and out of her daily persona and the alien-influenced one, speaking Russian, Korean and that mathematical alien language like a native. Hewson, too, navigates 'regular Jane' with 'Scanlon-controlled Jane,' the latter truly terrifying, and, as her former mentor, Marvel is full of benevolent grace, a warm presence. None of the male characters make as strong an impression, O'Connor given a background but not much character outside of brave determination, Firth miscast and Domingo becoming overexposed, his kindly Hugo only one click away from his smooth-talking "Running Man" emcee.
"Disclosure Day" may not equal the many Spielberg classics it references, but it's a very well made action thriller and above average summer entertainment.
Robin's Review: B
Universal Pictures releases "Disclosure Day" on 6/12/26.
