Disclosure Day ¦ Film Review (4.5*): What the World Needs Now Is A Lot More Empathy… So True!

A One Mann’s Movies review of “Disclosure Day”. (2026, 4.5*, 12A).

To say “highly anticipated” for Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” would be an understatement. More so for me, since “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” is my favourite film of all time. So I was riding for a fall!

Most of Spielberg’s recent directorial output has been more drama-based work and – ignoring “Ready Player One” from 2018 and “The BFG” from 2016, which both had a very different aesthetic, you have to go back to probably the very disappointing “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull” from 2008 to really get a Spielberg’s fantasy adventure (with Sci-Fi!) that feels similar. In the run up to the release I have had my eyes shut tight every time the trailer came on – I have HEARD it a lot! So it was with great anticipation that I sat down to see it yesterday evening in a packed Everyman Salisbury auditorium.

Thankfully, I loved it. Coming out, based on the way I felt, I was at a 10/10. However, on reflection this morning, I have slipped from a coveted 5-stars to a 4.5-stars, since I do recognise that it does have some flaws. But looking at social media this morning, many people HATED it! Don’t ‘cha just love the diversity of views that cinema provokes?!

One Mann’s Movies Rating:

Plot:

Dr. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) has stolen secrets from his employer, Wardex: a shadowy non-governmental body. A Wardex team led by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) wants them back. Because these are secrets that Scanlon believes could unravel the structure of the world’s societies.

Certification:

UK: 12A; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC website: “Moderate threat, violence, injury detail, infrequent strong language.”)

Talent:

Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Elizabeth Marvel, Hettienne Park, Tommy Martinez.

Directed by: Steven Spielberg.

Written by: David Koepp. (From a story by Steven Spielberg.)

Running Time: 2h 25m.

Review:

Positives:

• This is not “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”: in my book, really nothing could be. But in terms of the look and feel, together with a number of subtle Easter Eggs (was there a subliminal shot of Devil’s Tower in there, or something that looked very much like it?), this got a lot closer to the way that CE3K made me FEEL that all of the Sci-Fi wannabe’s we’ve had since. (Probably the excellent, under-seen “Midnight Special” was the closest before this one.)
• Much of this ‘vintage Spielberg’ look and feel came from the collaboration between Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski, as DP, with some brilliant use of light and shade that reminded me of the golden days of the likes of “E.T.”. I’ve seen comment online that the filming feels “outdated”, with occasional use of lens flare. But, for me, this just added to the nostalgia factor for classic Spielberg. This is Spielberg/Kaminski in innovative mode. There are some beautiful camera angles and movements. There is one shot of Kellner (O’Connor) and Jane (Eve Hewson) driving along in a car, near the start of the film, where the camera sweeps from the left of the car around the front of them in a complete arc to end up behind them. It made me want to stand up and applaud! It was probably done with a quite simple practical effect, but I found it so surprising and so clever. A scene involving a child and a ‘Hansel and Gretel house’, was one I found visually stunning. I’d personally whack this film straight into the shortlist for Oscar cinematography.
• The acting from the five principles I found really good, especially from the two leading actresses:
  • Emily Blunt, effortlessly switches from Russian to Korean to… something else. She has to cover quite a range here and although she is pretty great in most things she does, she really did the heavy lifting in this role. An Oscar nomination perhaps?
  • Eve Hewson plays Daniel’s girlfriend Jane. I spent the whole film thinking “Wow, Rachel Weisz is looking really good for her age… I feel I can really ignore the 20-year age gap between her and O’Connor”. Ha ha. Oops! It was only the end titles that re-informed me! Hewson is an interesting piece of casting, as she is the lowest profile of the leads. But I thought she did a fantastic job, especially in a tense ‘possession’ scene.
  • Josh O’Connor and Colman Domingo are as cool and professional as you’d expect them to be. (Good to see O’Connor finally getting some much-needed work – #humour).
  • Colin Firth plays out of type as a villain of the piece. I’ve seen a lot of social media comment ragging Firth as being terribly mis-cast and playing it as a pantomime villain. But I really liked him in the role!
• I really liked the way the film tried to link the story back to religion. Having Jane as an ex-novice in a convent (before she came off the rails and started having sex with Daniel!) was a really clever move and Sister Maura (Elizabeth Marvel) was one of the best characters in the film. A discussion between Jane and Maura late in the film – “…on earth” – I found wonderful. I also loved that the perceived next step in our evolution was the development of more empathy with each other: you only have to spend a few minutes on social media streams to appreciate that.
• It’s incredible to hear a new John Williams soundtrack again. The 94-year-old maestro came out of retirement to do this one for Spielberg and it would be great if it got another Oscar nomination (although there are probably a lot of better soundtracks out this year for the win).

Negatives:

• My main issues came from some of the writing by David Koepp. Koepp has an extremely hot and cold CV in my book with things as great as “Black Bag“, “Spider-Man” and “Mission: Impossible” in there but also things as bad as “The Mummy“, “Indiana Jones and Crystal Skull” and last year’s atrocious “Jurassic World Rebirth” to his name.
  • We are dumped into the first scene without any introduction to any of the characters and are forced to try to piece together where we are. Personally, I had no problem with that, although I can understand why some complain.
  • We are then pitched into what is effectively a ‘chase’ movie which, again, I didn’t have an issue with except for some rather ludicrous incidents along the way. One in particular sees Daniel (O’Connor) rather ridiculously stealing a car and then crashing it into a tree, surrounded by armed Wardex/FBI agents… and yet he still gets away. Although pursued by multiple agents in cars, he escapes, thanks only to some ridiculous Keystone-cops-style driving by another agent. It’s a very lame scene and Spielberg should have demanded a complete rewrite: there were a dozen better ways to have done this.
  • There’s very little character development that goes on, except perhaps for Jane. In particular, we learn virtually nothing about Hugo (Colman Domingo) and why he got to be doing what he is doing. I was unclear why there was such a change of heart of Noah (Firth) at the end of the film, as everyone else in the room seems to be completely disempowered and drift off (comically!)
  • Was ‘Davros’ ( © whoever wrote this on Facebook and made me guffaw) an overstep?
  • How did Margaret’s childhood house get realised? (via ‘Davros’??)

Summary Thoughts:

Having assessed my positives and negatives, I’d better stop writing before I need to adjust my rating! There are a lot of potential holes I could pick at with this one. But sometimes, you just have to rate a film based on your experience in the cinema, and this one made me feel great. I was quite surprised to find that the running time was 145 minutes… that time just flew for me, which is the sign of a good film.

One final comment. I have seen it mentioned online that this would have made a great mini-series rather than a movie. And to an extent – although I love the movies – this could be seen as a middle-section of a much longer form piece.

Where to watch?

Trailer:

The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCYT8vb2siQ. Yep… I’m glad I kept my eyes shut for this one. If you can avoid seeing the trailer before seeing the film, I would advise you do.

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