Steven Spielberg has said his latest film, Disclosure Day, is ‘the summation of my life in science fiction’, which began with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ends here. (He is now 79.) I adored Close Encounters when it first came out in 1977 and still do – that final scene must be one of the greatest final scenes in cinema, greater even than The Terminator. But Disclosure Day is not its match, not nearly. What we have here instead is a forgettable action film with the bones of your average conspiracy thriller. There may or may not be life on other planets, but this poor Earthling felt the life drain from her at around ten minutes in.
This poor Earthling felt the life drain from her at around ten minutes in
The title comes from ufologists, who believe that there will come a day when governments worldwide will stop covering up and release everything they know about UFOs, extraterrestrials and alien technology. Given that our governments seems incapable of keeping secrets or containing leaks – Mandelson would have surely told Epstein, at the very least – I find such a cover-up difficult to buy but let’s show willing. There are two main protagonists. One is Daniel (Josh O’Connor), a cyber-tech expert who, from the off, is on the run from whoever it is who wants whatever it is in his backpack. He is accompanied by his plucky girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson), who was once a novice nun, and is conveniently able to give us the religious element. If you show people aliens exist, what will that mean for people’s faith in God? (Don’t panic… God is safe in Spielberg’s hands.)
Across the country in Kansas City is Margaret (Emily Blunt), a television weathergirl who one day has a red cardinal fly in through her apartment window, and after that she can be fluent in any language, tell everything about someone upon meeting them, and talk in strange clicks like a dolphin. She’s meant to be broadcasting the weather but suddenly starts talking in strange clicks like a dolphin. (This is a fun scene.) She knows something weird is going on, and that she’s been possessed by some kind of force, but she is otherwise clueless.
The footage, however, goes viral and reaches Daniel, who understands that aliens are communicating through her. He can also understand the clicks and translates them: ‘Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know.’ Hang on, what? These aliens have travelled all this way to speak to us in clichés? He, too, had a red cardinal fly into his apartment once, and after that he was brilliant at maths. There could, I concede, be something in this. I have never been visited by a red cardinal and am not brilliant at anything.
Meanwhile, the sinister, quasi-governmental outfit that is after them is Wardex, headed by a stern-looking Colin Firth. Daniel used to work for Wardex but has now gone rogue ‘stealing the data I was paid to protect’. He believes the public should know the truth about alien visitations. The Firth character, however, says no, humanity won’t be able to cope. Daniel’s handler is Hugo (Colman Domingo), also a rogue Wardex employee who dresses, for some reason, like everybody’s uncle (a half-zip and a cardigan).
Our protagonists are chased, endlessly, on foot, in cars, on trains. I’d say this film is 80 per cent chasing, minimum, but in an Indiana-Jones way, rather than a tense, exciting Duel way. Meanwhile, there is a handheld piece of alien technology that allows the carrier to take control of someone else’s mind, make themselves invisible or teleport. It’s called ‘the device’ – but could equally have been called ‘the plot device’. Throughout, I should have said, we get the deployment of a John Williams score. He is still composing at 94, so sit on that, Steven!
To the extent that the cast are allowed to act rather than be forced to jump out of cars moments before they shoot off a cliff, it is well performed. And it is Spielbergian, with its ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events who then finally gather en masse to witness some spectacle. The ending, however, doesn’t induce wonder in the way that Close Encounters did. Instead it induces relief – especially for this tired Earthling.
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