Disclosure Day: A Review (Review #2193)

DISCLOSURE DAY

The truth is out there. Something else that is out there is a better movie than Disclosure Day. A mishmash of plots, self-serious to the point of parody, filled with shockingly awful performances, Disclosure Day is a low point in Steven Spielberg's filmography. 

It is also far too long and dull for what we did not get.

Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor) holds a major secret in his backpack. Shadowy Wardex Corporation head Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) will do anything to get this secret back. The secret, kept in a myriad of flash drives, is the existence of aliens who have been in contact for decades. To get those secrets back, Wardex does not shrink from taking Daniel's girlfriend, Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson).  Daniel, however, has a few tricks and an alien device up his sleeve. He and Jane manage to escape with the backpack and find shelter in Jane's former nunnery.

Daniel does not want to be involved in as much as he is. He is adamant that Hugo Wakefield (Coleman Domingo) take the information he has from him.  Hugo, who like Daniel worked at Wardex until they went rogue, assures him that he will be relieved of his package. He asks him to be patient. Hugo is also building some kind of massive set for an important reason.

Meanwhile, aspiring Kansas City television news reporter Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is wondering whether she should move again. This suggestion does not sit well with her current boyfriend, musician Jackson (Wyatt Russell). He is also puzzled on how, after a cardinal flies into their apartment, she is able to speak Russian. He'd be more puzzled if he saw Margaret use Jedi-like powers to get out of a speeding ticket, though she is barely aware of doing that. The big meltdown comes when she is presenting the weather. Margaret starts struggling to speak, then slips into unintelligible gibberish and collapses.

Scanlon knows that gibberish is alien. Daniel understands that gibberish as easily as he understands English. Soon both Margaret/Jackson and Daniel/Jane start racing away from Wardex's goons. Scanlon, however, can communicate with Jane telepathically using his own alien technology. He can even use his powers to try to get Jane to kill Daniel. 

The chase eventually leads Daniel, Margaret and Hugo to find each other. What happened on February 23, 1996, to the younger Daniel and Margaret that makes them so special to aliens? What are those animals, if they really are animals? Now that Margaret has managed to return to her Kansas City news station, will she get the world to listen?

I have seen Disclosure Day twice. I have fallen asleep watching Disclosure Day twice. However, I have full confidence that I did not fall asleep at the same point in Disclosure Day. Therefore, I think I saw the whole film. What I cannot do is fully remember it. I put that down to finding Disclosure Day very unmemorable. 

There are many problems with Disclosure Day. Director Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp (from a story by Spielberg) repeatedly attempt to show the world is at the brink of total annihilation. For example, a North Korean expert is at the news station with an interpreter. We are told from time to time that there is an impending nuclear war. However, that is all we are told. We are never really shown that there is an impending nuclear war. For a film that is aiming to put us in suspense, Disclosure Day is almost shockingly distant and remote. 

There is never a genuine sense of tension throughout the film apart from when Margaret and Daniel escape onto a moving train. To be fair, that moment does have some tension as to whether or not they will survive. Apart from that though, a lot of Disclosure Day is laughable. 

This is not hyperbole: the audiences that I saw Disclosure Day with were laughing at certain points. I do not think that Spielberg or Koepp wanted us to laugh when Margaret was able to spirit Daniel from Wardex's secret lair by having everyone think that she was someone else. I did ask myself if Margaret was a literal shapeshifter given how her appearance changed based on who was coming up to her. I also do not think that the aim was to have audiences laugh when Margaret calls Daniel to warn him that Scanlon's men know where he and Jane are. Maybe that was because it was amazing that she could drive so much without paying attention to the road.

Daniel too was able to look at Jane for long periods of time while driving without looking where he was going. I sat in amazement, not at the aliens or how Scanlon was communicating through his mind. I sat in amazement at how people could simultaneously drive and turn their heads to face their passengers in conversation. 

I have, with some fairness, been accused of becoming almost fixated on small details. The Waymo-like driving is one of those details. Another is on how Jane's former digs had the word "monastery" on its plaque. Granted, I am not Catholic. However, I thought a "monastery" was for men, and a "convent" was for women. I understand that some nuns do have "monasteries". However, I think it would have been easier to distinguish between "monastery" and "convent" for those of us not within Catholic theology.  Minor issue to be sure. 

Disclosure Day, for reasons I cannot fathom, touted itself as a film that would do more than shake people's faith, specifically Christianity. In some circles, I have been told, it would obliterate theology altogether. I think such reports are silly. I especially think that if Disclosure Day struggles distinguishing between "monastery" and "convent". To be fair, that is a minor issue and I personally prefer "nunnery", but I digress. Disclosure Day does make some curious stabs at being more theological than it ultimately is. If memory serves correct, Scanlon quotes Christ's words at the Garden (or a variation thereof). At another point, someone asks if knowing the existence of aliens would not make us question our faith. "I will not become anyone's religion", an angry Margaret at one point says.

Again, I do not know why Disclosure Day seems to think that the existence of aliens would wipe out faith, specifically the Judeo-Christian one. I also do not know why Disclosure Day would even care about such things.  

In terms of the film's technical aspects, Disclosure Day is closer to spoof than genuine film. The performances are all almost pretty bland to bad. Credit should be given where it is due. For the most part, Emily Blunt did well as Margaret Fairchild (separate from how one fights the temptation to call the character "Morgan Fairchild"). It is not a great performance. The scene of her helping Daniel escape was a source of unintended comedy. However, she did have good moments, such as when she casually slips into Russian or Korean without being aware that she is not speaking English.

She is the best performance in Disclosure Day. However, that is almost by default. Everyone else seems borderline idiotic. Josh O'Connor is so blank and dull as Daniel. He makes nebbishes look weak. Colin Firth seemed to act as if Disclosure Day were a James Bond spoof if we go by his performance. As a side note, John Williams' score made Scanlon's final appearance sound as if he was a Bond villain entering his lair. Hewson and Domingo were there. Wyatt Russell managed to look positively bored throughout the film. If he hit one note, it would have been amazing.

One of the most bizarre elements in Disclosure Day is when we see footage of President Nixon showing off the aliens to a guest. According to Daniel, he tells Jane that the person walking around with Nixon is someone who was "a big star in the fifties". Judging by how Nixon's guest looked like, I think Dick was showing the aliens off to Jackie Gleason. To be fair, the name of this big star was not mentioned. However, this figure was rather rotund. Why audiences now would know who this "big star" was Disclosure Day cannot answer. Those of us who think it is The Honeymooners' star that Nixon was showing the aliens off to are left to ask, "Why Jackie Gleason?". Moreover, why can't Daniel just say it's Jackie Gleason. It is doubtful that most people his age would know the Richard Nixon/Jackie Gleason/aliens connection. Or who Jackie Gleason is, unless they have seen Smokey and the Bandit. 

Disclosure Day is disjointed and is filled with pretty dull performances apart from Emily Blunt. It is really trying to be serious but seems dangerously close to veering into a downright spoof of an alien/chase film mashup. How (un)sweet it is.

DECISION: F