Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo
Certificate: 12A
Run Time: 145 mins

Disclosure Day is an original sci-fi thriller from Steven Spielberg, which sees the director revisiting the themes of exploring life beyond earth, with films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and War of the Worlds. David Koepp is on scriptwriting duties, who has previously collaborated with Spielberg on Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but he’s equally the name behind some real rubbish, such as Angels and Demons, Inferno and The Mummy (2017).

Josh O’Connor plays Daniel, a cybersecurity expert who goes on the run after stealing classified files and alien tech from Wardex, a shady government corporation headed by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth). Emily Blunt plays Margaret Fairchild, a television meteorologist who suddenly gets psychic abilities after encountering a cardinal, and after much chasing, Margaret and Daniel eventually cross paths.

While there’s lots to like, Disclosure Day is a mixed bag. Much in the manner of his previous film The Fabelmans, Disclosure Day‘s tone feels rather personal, occasionally bordering on profound. There’s some thrilling action sequences too, especially a car chase that climaxes on a train and a shot of government officials storming an unassuming building is straight out of Indiana Jones. John Williams also turns in one of his best scores in recent memory, with a thrillingly restrained yet melodic soundtrack that compliments the themes nicely. And while Spielberg’s regular collaborator Janusz Kamiński’s cinematography is typically bursting with colour, his work here feels uncharacteristically dark and gloomy, also lending to the film’s restrained feel.

It’s a shame David Koepp’s script is so clunky. While it’s admirable how Spielberg and Koepp drop you straight into the story, the way in which a character’s backstory or motivations are sandwiched into conversations feels unnatural. The film also never fully commits to any of the themes it explores – it has the beginnings of something interesting to say on religion and mankind’s overreliance on technology, but no more. The film’s also too long at 145 mins – I much preferred the first half, which plays more like a conspiracy thriller, but then began to feel the length in the prolonged third act.

None of the performances shine either, likely because they are all underwritten. While Emily Blunt does the best with what she has, she feels miscast as the fish-out-of-water meteorologist who can suddenly speak in alien tongues – I found the character exhausting rather than fun. Someone else who’s miscast is Colin Firth as the Indiana Jones-like villain, who spends most of the film sitting on chairs. Fortunately, Josh O’Connor is more convincing as the cybersecurity expert, and I liked the beginnings of the film’s exploration into his relationship with his girlfriend and former religious novice Jane (Eve Hewson), even if that’s also underdeveloped.

Disclosure Day ultimately wears the same problem as a number of Spielberg’s other more recent efforts – it’s enjoyable, but never quite soars, and the film would have benefitted from tighter pacing. It’s a shame that in this case, the main culprit is David Koepp’s script, which while serviceable, never fully explores its heady themes and is quite clunky in its construction. While I thought Disclosure Day would be a one-time watch when I left the cinema, some of its moments that border on profundity have stayed with me. I admire Disclosure Day for its ambition, but it’s a shame it’s not quite the slamdunk a film with such a talented and experienced director should be.