Extreme wrestling matches do seem otherworldly, but you don’t expect a movie about aliens to begin with one. But Disclosure Day does. One of our heroes, Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) is an obviously reluctant spectator, having been accosted by goons from a U.S. defense contractor called Wardex. Our chief bad guy, Wardex honcho Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) wants to trade Daniel’s girlfriend, Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson), for some files and a special alien thingee Daniel’s stolen. But the exchange goes south for Scanlon when Daniel brandishes the thingee. Daniel and Jane escape. They’ll spend the rest of the movie getting chased by the Wardex guys.
Next, there’s sexy weather gal Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) of Kansas City, Missouri, TV station KCXE. She goes a bit glitchy on air, and clips of her chittering go viral. Scanlon takes one look/listen and knows that’s not chittering; that’s an alien language. Margaret will also spend the rest of the movie getting chased by the Wardex bad guys.
During the chases, Daniel gets separated from Jane and Margaret actually just ditches her boyfriend (that’s OK; he was annoying). They finally meet up toward the end of the movie. You know, in time to reveal the secret: that for 70+ years the government has been gathering crashed or shot-down UFOs (AKA UAPs), trying to reverse-engineer their technology, and torturing the surviving aliens.
Is that a spoiler? Nah, not really. It’s kinda in the trailer. And the title.
See It
Despite the somewhat snarky tone of my synopsis, I like Disclosure Day well enough to recommend it. Don’t spend major dollars to experience it in a theater; it’s got some science-fictiony effects, but it’s not a thrill-a-minute CGI-driven extravaganza. Wait for it to hit streaming. The best bits are the performances by Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor, and you don’t need a big screen for that.
The overall vibe reminds me a lot of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, involving seemingly normal humans who have been captivated by an otherworldly feeling that compels them forward. They’re terrified at what they’ll find if they examine childhood terrors too deeply, but in the end they can’t resist. There are also whisps of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in the occasional flashes of humor. Both of which virtues you can credit to Blunt and O’Connor, who are alternately serious and funny enough so you get invested in just how much they have to go through to get to that climatic scene.
Emily Blunt is particularly watchable as she suddenly starts peering into folks’ souls and reassuring them about their deepest doubts. Or talking fluently in Russian or Korean, languages she doesn’t know how to speak.
Colin Firth? Normally so good, and he’s not bad here. He’s just tasked with the unenviable role of being, for the first 90% of the film, a dedicated, mouth-frothing villain … who runs out of things to say for not entirely believable reasons. Also good and serviceable is Colman Domingo as Hugo Wakefield, Scanlon’s former colleague, now gone rogue, who becomes the spider at the center of the web trying to ensnare and expose Wardex.
Now there’s a lot to quibble about, even for me. Why is Josh at that wrestling event to begin with? Those bits featuring the obviously CGI animals … I get it, maybe, but it seems tacked on rather than integral to the rest of the plot. The encounter on the train tracks: it’s the closest we come to Spielbergian summer fun, but it’s got nothing to do with … yeah, again … the plot. Why is it that aliens advanced enough to traverse the vastness of space for a visit here are crashing or can’t avoid getting shot down? A crop circle … isn’t that descending to a “kitchen sink mode” cliché?
Spielberg can deliver a compelling story that’s layered with meaningful themes; just consider Saving Private Ryan, his masterwork, where every scene is reflecting some disturbing questions about warfare. But here we’ve got more of a pastiche, a movie that wants to carry some thematic weight but also wants to pull in the summer blockbuster crowd. The weighty, thoughtful ideas about the impact of verified aliens on our own political and religious structures aren’t examined at any greater depth than to ask “what will happen?” The political ramifications seem to just evaporate. There’s more to the religious dimension; Daniel’s girlfriend Jane is a lapsed novitiate who has a few conversations with an older (and thus, it implies, a wiser) nun whose views, I suspect, do not reflect traditional Catholic doctrine about aliens.
Still, here it is: The exciting parts are exciting and watchable and fun, especially any time Emily Blunt is in the frame. She and Josh O’Connor pull it together just enough to make it worth your time. It could have been even better if the action had more effectively driven the thoughtful stuff, giving it more weight.
If you’re not going to go out on a climatic note that ties up everything into a pretty package, at least do something quotable. Thus, best part: that last line.