Review by Brad Balfour, Arts Editor
Film: “Disclosure Day”
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenplay: David Koepp
Cast: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo. Elizabeth Marvel, Wyatt Russell
Yes, I know it’s a big event film. Yes, it’s meant to offer the other side of the same coin that “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” reflected. While Steven Spielberg’s films like “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” offered a more whimsical view of aliens on Earth, he has also explored the destructive implications of aliens landing on Earth through his remake of “War of The Worlds” — H.G. Wells’ classic novel of alien invasion.
Whether “Disclosure Day” is master director Spielberg’s final statement on the existence of extraterrestrials or not, he adamantly maintains throughout the film that confirmation of their existence will change the world forever.
It’s really a pretty simple story. While global tensions are heating up, two very different people suddenly become connected as the alien presence in their heads starts to emerge. One is a reporter on a tv station; the other, a scientist and ex-con who is a math genius and major hacker.
Oscar® nominee Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”) and Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (“Challengers”) play the whistleblowers who plan to blow wide open knowledge of their existence. The film kicks off when Margaret Fairchild (Blunt) –– a Kansas City TV meteorologist –– and Daniel Kellner (O’Connor) –– a former journalist and young cybersecurity expert –– begin to encounter each other because implanted knowledge of the aliens finally emerges within them both. As they become increasingly linked, they set off alarm bells.
For some reason, the aliens have embedded themselves into both their heads, waiting for the time when they need to emerge. Of course, that begs the question: “Why?” Couldn’t the aliens just land and announce themselves to the world without all the creeping revelations?
Nonetheless, Spielberg and writer Dave Koepp have chosen to tackle the notion of first contact by having the aliens connect with us in this surreptitious way. Instead of exposing themselves directly, they use these human vessels. Maybe that’s because this approach offers a more dramatic way to engage the two stars, Blunt and O’Connor, to be a better face for the aliens. Or, maybe it’s because a shadowy organization has been suppressing close encounters of the third kind once they began. This group, now headed by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), have chosen to torture and abuse the aliens for their secrets and technology. They have been intending to reverse engineer what they’ve uncovered.
Wardex Corporation is a secret organization trying to keep secret alien visits on earth. But this covert company is threatened by a renegade group headed by Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo.) Its members are determined to reveal the visitors’ existence in the hope that such a revelation will alter humanity’s perception of itself. As in all of its promos, the movie asks the question: “If you found out that we weren’t alone — if someone showed you, proved it to you — would that frighten you?” Well, it certainly frightens certain characters in the film. But since a majority of people actually believe that we have been visited by aliens, I’m not sure it would really be such a shock.
With a tag line like “This summer, the truth belongs to seven billion people,” the film portends bigger things, bigger than war with Iran or Trump’s birthday. I’m not sure we’re really worrying about them at all. But since Spielberg is begging the question, and he believes their appearance would be friendly, the consequences would be and should be enormous. How they would unite us remains to be seen.
Though much of the film is dominated by chase scenes and moments of near-destruction, it finally confronts its characters and the audience with the big question. And the film tries to explore such a revelation’s possible implications. There’s this nun, Sister Maura (Elizabeth Marvel) who had headed the convent where Kellner’s girlfriend, Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson), had once been as a nun. She believes that the visitors’ appearance on Earth only proves God’s great and mysterious ways. And the many renegades who have joined Wakefield also believe their mission to be globally essential if not spiritually uplifting.
But there’s just so much that’s appeared since Spielberg’s groundbreaking exploration of extraterrestrials in “Close Encounters” that this film had to be made. That’s not only because the great director believed he still needed another pass in the alien encounter realm, but also that he felt he needed to make something that would almost be apocalyptic –– even transcendent in its ideas and expression.
That he only partially succeeds may not be a flaw of Spielberg or the film. It’s just that the notion is so huge that no amount of filmmaking can truly capture the consequences of actual alien visitation. But in this day and age, it may just give us hope for the future as the original space program once did.