The latest Steven Spielberg film stars Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt. But has it wowed the critics?
The Guardian: **** “Disclosure Day is never anything other than entertaining and grade-A fun; rare enough in the movies or anywhere else, rocketing along with barnstorming set-pieces, exhilarating chases, funny lines and a career-topper of a performance from Blunt who may yet be morphing into a female version of Tom Hanks.”
National Review.com: “Disclosure Day descends through dramatic rather than comic intervals into chase-movie set pieces, yet it lacks an action movie’s sense of fun. Two show-off sequences — cars bursting through a house, and a car dragged along railroad tracks between moving trains — sustain suspense, but the excitation is empty, despite some visual grace notes.”
Variety: “But where “Close Encounters” tapped into the mystery of all this with an innocence that was both starry-eyed and spectacular, “Disclosure Day” feels like a thriller docudrama that’s too cut-and-dried about what it believes. The actors are quite good (especially Blunt, who makes you feel she’s seeing the uncanny), but for all the film’s slow build it doesn’t take us anywhere overly surprising. It just confirms the “truth” that’s been out there for so long it’s starting to feel like a fairy tale for the dispossessed.”
Empire: **** ” Amid all the thrills and sci-fi spills, and with the help of a uniformly strong cast (though Blunt is the standout here), he presents what is essentially a timely plea for compassion and communication. Humanity can do better, he believes — even if it needs a little childhood-fantasy help.”
Den of Geek: “It’s pure Spielbergian magic. The movie that gets to those final moments is a lot more checkered, although not without its charms and entertainment.”
BBC.co.uk: ** “Disclosure Day might not be so unsatisfying if you share the wide-eyed positivity that Spielberg puts into it, and there are some expertly choreographed action sequences, even if they do echo various Indiana Jones adventures.”
Roger Ebert.com: **** “The final scenes of “Disclosure Day” are among the most emotionally riveting of Spielberg’s career in ways you won’t predict. They lean into his sentimentality and thank God or whatever Non-Humanoid Supreme Being that they do.”
NME.com: **** “There’s an impressively strong cast throughout but Blunt is a stand-out. She continues her fine run of form in a role that requires a great deal from her. The real star is the director, though. Aside from marshalling some beautiful emotive moments and the frankly stunning action sequences, he devised the original story which was then turned into a script by regular collaborator David Koepp.”
Slate.com: “But the screenplay, by David Koepp—Spielberg’s collaborator on the first two Jurassic Park movies, War of the Worlds, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull—builds out a rich enough world to carry the audience along even through the more puzzling stretches, like a late flashback sequence that takes Margaret back to a moment in her childhood she has never before understood (and that this viewer, for one, still doesn’t).”
Deadline.com: “As is always the case with a Spielberg film, you can count on first-rate craft and there is no question Disclosure Day has it with Janusz Kaminsky’s sharp cinematography, Sarah Brosher’s pulse-pounding editing, John Williams’ pitch-perfect score, the dazzling visual effects of Matthew Butler and his team, and the superb production design from Adam Stockhausen (notably in the spectacular television control room scene towards the end of the film which is a triumph for all these disciplines). “
The Independent: **** “Emily Blunt shines in an exquisitely entertaining ride, which tangles with politics, big business and religious faith.”
The Telegraph: ** “Disclosure Day is shot with all the director’s signature elegance, but the plot is woolly and the tone a bungled mix of solemn and silly.”