Truth is out there, it just needs to be disclosed. The world is on the brink of World War III. Somewhere in Washington, D.C., a once cybersecurity expert has now turned into a whistleblower. Dr. Daniel Keller (Josh O’Connor), once employed by government monolith Wardex, has downloaded and stolen secrets from his old employer. With help from his old Wardex colleague, Hugo (Colman Domingo), Keller aims to reveals to the world what was buried for the span of nearly 80 years. What are these secrets? Hint: they rhyme with “Episcopalians.” In tow of these secrets, Keller must evade capture, and Wardex CEO Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) will use every tool and employee to bring him in.

Meanwhile, in Kansas City, successful meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is itching to make another move, this time upleveling her career away from weather and into a national anchor position. A weird encounter with a cardinal that flew into her home changes everything. Immediately after, Margaret can speak many languages. But there’s one bizarre dialect that comes over her as she’s delivering the weather. She’s the key to all of this, and what starts as a simple chase/evade between two characters turns into a race of who can get to Margaret first.

In Disclosure Day, the movie shows famed director Steven Spielberg locked back in on his long-standing interest in the unknown and not-of-this-world. From the angle he comes at it, it’s not a bad thing. In the present day, where our nation is so divided not only politically but what how we engage with content and when, what would be the one thing that could stop everyone in their tracks? Irrefutable evidence of aliens. Showing that part is something Spielberg does well, and there are small stretches where the magic of Spielberg is found in exhilarating and humorous ways. And there is a noble, humanistic intention he’s pleading for us to heed. But it’s difficult to come out of Disclosure Day feeling like the father of the modern blockbuster has created another winner.

Disclosure Day wastes no time in getting going, dropping viewers in media res to this world. Screenwriter David Koepp chooses to slow drip information, which works OK enough for a while in the early going as characters and technology get introduced, and the promise of something grand hovers. Thinking about it now days later, more character backstory work or maybe even an old-fashioned, Star Wars-like crawl could have done wonders to remedy both later stage movie pacing issues and smooth over some of the unfathomable happenings that occur later.

Technically a chase film, there’s a puzzling sense of rote and inertia found both in its story and general filmmaking that prevents Disclosure Day from really accelerating to anything meaningful in the first 90-100 minutes, save for an exhilarating train set piece that shows Spielberg hasn’t lost the ability to create awe. Remove that however, and the feature whiffs on establishing scope and setting (for a nation on the brink of World War III, there’s no real indicators of dread or visual despair). Without those pillars firmly erected, you start to increasingly think about the why and how. What limits does this extraterrestrial mind transporter thing have (if any)? Why are Margaret and Daniel essentially the ones chosen to disclose? As for the actual ending, count me as one who liked what Spielberg was going for, but it’s hard not to see it as “behind the times” and not quite tapped into how much of the populace today engages with updates in the fashion Spielberg is suggesting. Even the celebrated John Williams’ score is kind of forgettable at best, and ill-fitting at worst.

Being this down on a movie would seemingly extend to the cast as well, no? Not quite. Despite all said previously, the work of Blunt in this one is in the upper echelon of her filmography, and she alone is working overtime to give layers to a character who is more of a vessel than a fleshed-out person. Still, she gets a meatier role than her co-stars in O’Connor, Firth, and Domingo, the latter two simply existing on the axis of good and evil.

After more time to think on it and put fragmented thoughts into a hopefully readable review, I’m convinced that Disclosure Day would be a richer, more compelling film if it focused on the aftermath of the disclosure event instead of being so steadfast in showing the elongated and, at times, plodding buildup to it. With the right care, that could be a different Spielberg effort and one that could spark increased discussion. I’d be interested in that film, instead of one that covers similar subject matter to his prior works, but slots well behind them.

C-

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