While most filmmakers are busy packaging old wine in a new bottle, here is an industry giant that attempts to package new wine in an old bottle. 62 years into his career as a director, Steven Spielberg still has new stories to tell... about a subject matter he has explored and set the benchmark with, multiple times in his career.
Disclosure Day is packaged and edited like a sci-fi thriller, akin to War of the Worlds (2005) and yet, the presentation of the aliens is entirely different. It is like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) in that it has a government cover-up angle and is still dissimilar in how it deals with the subject. The film’s third act has the beating heart of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and yet, the body within which it beats is entirely different.
As if having one of the most coveted filmographies, and an unofficial but near-perfect alien trilogy wasn't enough, Spielberg decides to make a confusing yet compelling swing for the fences.
This film marks his reunion with screenwriter David Koepp and partner in crime, John Williams. For the uninitiated, this is the trio that has worked on the original Jurassic Park trilogy aka the summer blockbuster of all summer blockbusters. As a result, we get a score that feels familiar and riveting but not as memorable, and a screenplay that hooks you from the first frame of the film but often makes you question why. Naturally though, amongst the three, it is Spielberg's direction that stands out the most. The movie is at its best and most entertaining when the 79-year young director is simply showing off by flexing his filmmaking muscles. With stunning camera angles, drone work, and a hailstorm that sees cereals being poured into a bowl (you must see it to believe it), he ensures that the film remains a strictly big-screen experience.
Speaking of artists that shine in the movie, Emily Blunt delivers what is easily her career-best performance. She plays a television meteorologist that is looking for something more, both from her job and her life, until she is shown... more. Blunt manages to portray a human cursed and blessed with knowledge that she did not ask for. Her eyes convey the feelings of anxiety, fear, alienation, realisation and acceptance, but it is her physicality that drives it home. She is supported by a solid cast including but not limited to an evocative Colin Firth, a fine Colman Domingo, who seems to be on a dream run this year, an electric Eve Hewson and Josh O'Connor, who plays a character so Josh O'Connor-coded that it could, in fact, only be played by Josh O’Connor.
The film starts in medias res (Latin for 'in the midst of things'), giving the audience no time to understand what is going on. The only way to find out, is to continue watching the story unfold. As a viewer, I found myself in a Catch-22. While I did not want to blink an eye for fear of missing out on any information, I also found myself wondering what all of it was leading to. At times, the film's technical brilliance seemed like a cover up for its shortcomings — for example, despite being packaged as a thriller, it has a predictable plot. Koepp’s fast-paced screenplay seems to be at loggerheads with Spielberg’s story; it was as if the two were running different races. While Koepp seemed to be running a 100-metre dash that’s all about moving from one stride to the next, Spielberg was running a marathon. One where he needed to strategise the best possible way forward.
The story aims to deal with ideas of loss, grief, suppressed memories, faith, empathy, and acceptance, among others. However, it falls short of its mark because of its relentless pacing that disregards the idea of letting the audience simmer in their emotions. With a runtime of two hours 26 minutes, the film is slightly bloated with ideas it does not fully explore and conversations between characters that it does not bother addressing.
However, Disclosure Day is a film that ultimately demands and commands your attention, despite its shortcomings. The execution of the third act is near-perfect. It pulls you in, holds your attention, and finally allows you to breathe, to think, and to feel. In this unusual summer outing, Spielberg rewards your patience if you are able to give it to him, with a final frame that lingers long after the credits roll.