Information release date
Works directed by Steven Spielberg
Written by David Cope
Starring Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colman Domingo
Classified as PG; 146 minutes
Released in theaters on June 12th
The first two-thirds of Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg’s new sci-fi conspiracy thriller, is spent by a honey-voiced man with a mysterious authority named Hugo (Colman Domingo), calmly but meticulously overseeing the construction of a massive set on the grounds of an industrial warehouse. We’ll eventually find out what Hugo is building and why he’s hired dozens of skilled staffers to do it. But Hugo’s role in understanding and unlocking Disclosure Day is no secret. He is, in design and purpose, a very cinematic avatar of Spielberg, measuring the aesthetic space of the world and laying the bricks of its story before our eyes.
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Hugo had an extraordinary confidence in his plans and craft, and he exuded the arrogance and self-aggrandizement you would expect from any other living director. The soundstage is, to quote the old Orson Welles quote, “the biggest train set ever made by a boy,” and it’s over-the-top. But Hugo sits at the center of Spielberg’s films, and so many of us have spent the past half-century viewing and processing pop culture through Spielberg’s lens that we can almost forgive it if, many times, it feels as if the character and the films surrounding him are putting on a show for just one audience: Spielberg himself.
Colman Domingo plays Hugo, a very Spielbergian avatar in the film.Nico Tavanis/Canadian Press
Stunning in its visuals, solipsistic in its ideas, and with stunning performances that frequently clash with its groaning narrative, Disclosure Day represents the best and most frustrating elements of Spielberg’s canon of work. The film may be touted as the final answer to a question that has plagued the director his entire life: Are we alone in the universe? – But there’s so much more packed into this movie than bits and pieces (of Reese) of E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, War of the Worlds, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Yes, there are aliens, but this movie isn’t just about Minority Report’s fear of the surveillance state, it’s also about space. Or the Post’s belief in the power of mass-market journalism. Or even Hooke’s cure for repairing childhood was unfairly curtailed. So Disclosure Day unfolds as you would expect the epic Spielberg 101 syllabus to unfold. This is honest, sloppy, awesome stuff that will drive most people completely nuts.
The film, starring Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt, is full of stunning visuals but is ultimately held back by a weak story.Universal Pictures and Amblin Eng. Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment/Canadian Press
The story, developed from an original idea by Spielberg and drafted into screenplay form by longtime collaborator David Koepp, is at the root of the problem. In most cases: there is no such thing. Essentially one long chase, Disclosure Day revolves around all-too-thinly sketched heroes with varying degrees of purpose as they try to evade capture by malevolent forces as much as possible. It’s a rat hunt, but sometimes it’s on the side of the exterminator.
We first meet Daniel (Josh O’Connor), a bland cybersecurity expert who has stolen a cache of government files from a shadowy military-industrial corporation called Wardex. The digital secret box is under the control of a pious tech titan named Noah (Colin Firth). Daniel’s plan to play Edward Snowden and leak Wordex data to the world is complicated by the sudden appearance of Margaret (Emily Blunt), a television journalist who can read his mind and the minds of others.
As Daniel and Margaret race from one end of the American Midwest to the other, it becomes increasingly clear that the two share a traumatic past that has been partially forgotten, one that may have been shaped by otherworldly forces. Cue crop circles, whispers of a 1940s incident in Roswell, New Mexico, and a disturbing cadre of cartoonishly rendered CGI animals that look like they’ve been pulled from a Thomas Kinkade painting. What does that mean? To understand it, you only need to know the bare basics of Spielberg’s extraterrestrial films. Or maybe you’ve watched an episode or two of The X-Files.
Perhaps aware that the film doesn’t have many puzzles to solve, Spielberg and Cope set the alien actions against the backdrop of the threat of global nuclear war, occasionally punctuating Daniel and Margaret’s antics with snippets of television news reports in which the anchors drop references to “DEFCON 1” and “North Korea.” This plot point and the path it ultimately follows feel as if Spielberg was making his own misguided version of Alan Moore’s Watchmen, a characterization far too cynical for the director’s serious tastes.
Blunt will play Margaret, a television journalist.Nico Tavernis/Associated Press
Meanwhile, Hugo, who oversees the entire journey of Daniel and Margaret, is joined by Spielberg’s regular collaborator John Williams (whose score frequently bends when it’s supposed to bend), cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (one of the most skilled actors I’ve ever seen). (though he designed some technically stunning shots, he was comfortable washing out the world’s colors), and may have taken more pleasure in coordinating the adventure via a cell phone headset than anyone else involved in the actual film, including Cope. (He pocked the screenplay with 12 major plot holes and some of the most infuriating dialogue of his extraordinarily checkered career, but he gets bonus points for having someone utter the line “Is this an AI?” incredulously.)
At its best, Disclosure Day rarely delivers the eye-opening, heart-pounding wonders that have become Spielberg’s signature. The car chase through a rural farmhouse is perfectly staged, and the long one-shot sequence tracking Margaret through a particularly bad morning in the newsroom is a great synergy of balletic camerawork and Blunt’s (much more fun than O’Connor) delightfully playful performance.
There are invisible fire engines, mind-control devices, teleporting minions, and even a scene where an out-of-control car fights a speeding freight train. It’s a collection of noisy toys that rattle and keep Spielberg’s inner child from staying indoors.
But all the fun and excitement also has to sit uneasily with painfully thin characters, a handful of extremely flat supporting characters (Eve Hewson, who plays Daniel’s religious girlfriend, is terrifying, while Wyatt Russell, who typically entertains in the right kind of way with The Disappearance of Fluffy Boy, can’t figure out his thankless role as Margaret’s bewildered boyfriend), and an ending that leaves some in the audience rioting. It’s not unreasonable either.
By the time Disclosure Day reveals all of its many secrets, the same moment Hugo finally relinquishes his reins, it’s clear that Spielberg has gone to great lengths to realize a lifelong dream and stage such a close encounter. However, others may feel a little left out. They are also left out.
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