“Disclosure Day,” perhaps because of all its hype, seemed a little disappointing to me. The film is a thriller more than a science-fiction story. The acting throughout is superb, though, with Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor carrying the bulk of the movie. There are several themes explored, some more successfully than others. At two and a half hours in length, it is overlong as well.

The movie begins with a wrestling match, with all its bravado and staged violence. At first, I had to wonder if the wrestlers were aliens.

It turns out that Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) is waiting in the stands with two agents of Wardex. Eventually we find out that Wardex has been tasked by the U.S. government to deal with the secrets about alien visitors. Wardex have kidnapped Daniel’s girlfriend Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson) to force him to return material.

Outside the arena, Jane is produced. Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) demands the materials back which Daniel stole, viz. archival materials concerning aliens dating back to Roswell and a special tool of the aliens. This tool looks like an elongated crystal stick which tapers at both ends. Daniel is able to escape with Jane using the tool as a threat.

The first of many car chase scenes occurs with Daniel able to elude his pursuers. Jane suggests going to a convent where she once was a novitiate to hide out. Sister Maura (Elizabeth Marvel) is compassionate. She says that Daniel can stay the night although Jane can remain in perpetuity.

Meanwhile back at Wardex, it is discovered that multiple workers have disappeared. Noah suspects something is up and frets about the release of the materials to the outside world.

In another subplot of the picture, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is on air talking about hail when she does a shimmy. Her partner Jackson (Wyatt Russell) likes the scene on TV. We see a cardinal fly into the house. Suddenly Margaret is proficient in other languages.

On her way to the TV station, she is speeding and encounters a policeman. She knows all about him and gives him advice. She does the same thing at the station, advising co-workers about their personal lives. She speaks Korean to a visiting interviewee. On camera she suddenly speaks in an alien (literally) tongue. Then she faints.

In the morning Daniel and Jane (who decides to leave the convent) go to a safe house, an abandoned farm house in the boondocks. Jane confronts Daniel about what the materials show. He begins to show her, using the archived files, how Richard Nixon came to view the aliens. One shocking scene shows an alien apparently undergoing vivisection.

When Daniel leaves the house to get better phone reception, Jane is targeted by Noah from afar. Using the alien tool at some risk to himself, he puts pictures of Jane up on a screen. He connects to her mind in such a way that she cannot resist him. He asks for clues about how to get to the safe house. At Wardex, they use their huge computational array to narrow in based on her descriptions. Before disconnecting, Noah asks Jane to use a large kitchen knife to kill Daniel. Will Noah’s plan succeed? What is going on with Margaret?

I truly thought from the trailer that the film would have a more prominent display of the aliens. Instead, we get minimal footage of them. This is true through more than 90% of the film.

Instead we get the theme of the individual crusader vs. the evil government quasi-agency. Obviously Wardex has the latest in computer technology and AI. Yet they have a notoriously difficult time finding Daniel and Jane, let alone their departed employees.

At one point, Noah says that presidents no longer have a need-to-know about the aliens. But why is this information restricted to American soil? The idea that no other nation had similar encounters with the aliens and might have their own footage is never explored. This is convenient for the film, but I found it unrealistic.

There is a tendency in Spielberg films to oversimplify matters. One such topic occurs when Jane is talking to Sister Maura about how revealing the existence of aliens would affect faith groups around the globe (suddenly, we’ve gone international). Sister Maura gives a beatific response that appears instantly to convince Jane to be the right answer. Despite Sister Maura’s response, it seems certain that this won’t be every faith group’s response. This is never explored.

I also find it hard to believe that Wardex could have kept these secrets all this time. It’s too convenient and unbelievable. Another point that the film dances around is would the public believe that the footage of aliens, if released, were not some AI concoction. There is no doubt that such findings would spread like wildfire on the Net. But what about the need to prove that they were not deep-fakes?

The excessive number of chase scenes made me wonder what kind of a movie this wanted to be. There is one action scene where a car has become embedded in a train and the heroes have to escape certain death. Yet for all the shooting and car crashes, I don’t think anyone died in this film.

The subplot about the world being on the brink of Armageddon was not explored enough either. I got the feeling that the audience is meant to believe that releasing alien footage would cause world peace.

The subplot about Margaret and Daniel’s connection was interesting. I wish that there had been more of this earlier in the movie. It made sense and makes this film worth watching.

Emily Blunt, such a gifted actress, gives a moving and complex performance. She pivots with the revelations about herself. She even deals with her fear well.

Josh O’Connor gives life to Daniel. We learn about his past live and his struggles with his mathematical gift. This all ties in to how he is connected with Maggie in a very believable way.

The denouement is excellent but no spoilers as to why. At two and a half hours, the same length as “Project Hail Mary”, it needed editing, unlike PHM. This film is safe to see for all ages.

Three and a half out of five stars

If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to eight billion people.

We are coming close to … Disclosure Day.

Cast: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Screenplay by: David Koepp
Story by: Steven Spielberg