Disclosure Day. A re-tread of Spielberg’s Greatest Hits; ET and Close Encounters meets the X-Files, without any of the wonder.
Forty years ago, the young Spielberg would have delivered a blockbuster filled with wonder and brio. Just the title gives you that sinking feeling.
Less than the sum of its parts, this is ET for the terminally nostalgic, Close Encounters for the retirement home generation.
No criticism implied of Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor or Colin Firth. Blunt is having a whale of a time displaying her range, enjoying the movie way more than we are. Firth urges us to finally forget he was Mr Darcy. We don’t. O’Connor does his best to match Richard Dreyfus. He can’t. Eve Hewson’s ex-nun; why is her character even in this?
Simply Meh
The actors can’t make up for Spielberg’s story and David Koepp’s forty-two drafts script simply doesn’t work. Spielberg apparently doesn’t realize we’ve seen ALL of this before. Koepp leans into the fact that everyone has.
In any other conspiracy thriller, this would be a blood-bath. If it’s that serious, you take out every witness, delete every file, destroy every artifact. But the stakes are never pitched that high. And the bad guys are seriously incompetent. No follow-through.
Instead we go through some limp, set-piece chases trying to recover McGuffins. There’s way too much faffing with mobile phones, too many philosophical debates between old men.
Colin Firth delivers the most evil interrogation scene since Christoph Waltz in Inglourious. There’s a train-track escape worthy of Bourne, Bond and Indiana Jones, but that’s it.
You’ve seen literally everything done better somewhere else.
So if the set-up is poor, what about the ending?
A Lack of Commitment
Spoiler alert; Colin Firth’s sinister government fixer just… gives up. Heny Lloyd-Hughes, the ruthless henchman who knows his boss isn’t up to the job, also just… gives up.
And finally… the aliens. Remember how disappointing we found Spielberg’s Close Encounters ‘Special Edition?’ Seriously, Steven, we’re doing that again?
I’ve worked on Spielberg productions. The man is a master craftsman, a brilliant director. But maybe it’s time to stop re-working old glories.