Disclosure Day Review: Close Encounters of the Emotional Kind

As I was leaving the Austin press screening of Disclosure Day, the new sci-fi drama from Steven Spielberg, there was an astronomical phenomenon. A rare conjunction, with Venus and Jupiter seemingly within touching distance of each other, two bright spheres the only visible celestial bodies in the night sky. And my only thought was, “Wow.”

Maybe that’s because Spielberg put it in my head. He is, after all, the master of wow, and Disclosure Day is a perfect example of his ability to bypass the logic centers of the brain and go straight for the sense of wonder.

He’s also the master of Americana, and this time he heads straight to the Midwest for Kansas City TV meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt). She’s dealing with a gap in her life. There’s an emptiness that definitely isn’t being fulfilled by her ne’er-do-well boyfriend (Wyatt Russell, the king of such parts), and it’s only widening because she suddenly seems to be able to read minds and speak every language. Her plight is somehow connected to a man she has never met but seems to know a disturbing amount about: Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor), a cybersecurity expert on the run from his former employers with a cache of files proving that aliens do exist.

Of course, Spielberg is no stranger to cinematic first contact, having basically defined the genre with his masterpiece, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But Disclosure Day’s opening act is arguably closer to Munich, with its lengthy discourses on the philosophical and religious ramifications of a life-changing decision. Those conflicts are embodied in Daniel’s bosses, played by Colin Firth, blunt and brutally focused as the head of the shadowy corporation that’s guarding humanity against the knowledge that there’s something out there, and Colman Domingo, positively fizzing as the dissident scientist who believes that the truth shall set us free. 

Intriguingly, the script by David Koepp (who also penned the less optimistic War of the Worlds for Spielberg) adds in a theological perspective through his Bridge of Spies star Eve Hewson. As Jane, Daniel’s girlfriend and ex-novitiate, she relies on the spiritual guidance of her former mother superior (Elizabeth Marvel) to help integrate cosmic beings into her cosmology. These exchanges can sometimes be a little obvious and direct, but they’re also brief enough to not be intrusive, and are always counterbalanced by action. Spielberg still knows exactly when to give the audience a chase scene or some strange alien tech that is defined just vaguely enough to be useful without ever being a MacGuffin.

Lesser storytellers would also overreach for some kind of romance between Daniel and Margaret. Instead, this is actually the place where Spielberg comes closest to CE3K. Their relationship resonates the same as the one between Richard Dreyfuss and Melinda Dillon: very ordinary people who connect at a deep and meaningful level because of this extraordinary moment. When their paths finally intersect, the camera seems inevitably more drawn to Blunt as Fairchild. It’s a stellar performance, finding nuance in her struggle to integrate the impossible into her ordinary life. 

Spielberg’s fascination is not with the possibilities of alien diplomacy. It’s with our emotional possibilities as human beings, of our ability to be astonished, and to let that astonishment speak to the best of ourselves. Disclosure Day may inevitably lead to a denouement that spotlights astounding CGI of giant flying vessels and classic gray aliens. Yet its eyes remain firmly fixed on the human observers. In these moments it’s the converse of CE3K, which relied so heavily on spectacle. Here, the lights in the sky are there to illuminate the potential of humanity to be bound together by something bigger than ourselves.

In one word: Wow.

Disclosure Day

2026, PG-13, 145 mins. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell, Elizabeth Marvel, Tommy Martinez, Henry Lloyd-Hughes.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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