Disclosure Day is everything you want - and can expect - from a Steven Spielberg film involving aliens. It’s thrilling, intriguing and visually exciting but also full of empathy and poses important questions about the human condition.
Throughout his career, Spielberg has wowed audiences with films about the extra-terrestrial and while this is not a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), it does serve as a kind of bookend to that mainstream sci-fi masterpiece.
The film centres on its two main characters, weather presenter Margaret (Emily Blunt) and cyber security expert Daniel (Josh O’Connor).
Watch our interview with Steven Spielberg and Josh O'Connor
They become involved in a plot to expose decades of secrets around extra-terrestrial encounters.
The less I say about the plot the better as this is one of those films where you just want to be along for the ride.
Blunt gives an incredible performance here - a career stand-out that will surely have her in contention come awards season. She deftly moves between emotions within scenes and shows great vulnerability and strength. It really feels as though there is nothing she cannot do on screen.
O’Connor has been choosing roles very carefully in his career so far and this film shows that he can hold his own when it comes to action too. He’s the perfect Daniel.
Irish actress Eve Hewson is also brilliant. Her character Jane, Daniel’s partner and a former nun, is at the heart of the film’s big questions about faith and humanity. When she is on screen, you can’t look away.
Watch our interview with Eve Hewson
The action set-pieces are to behold, the cat and mouse chase is exciting, and there is a nice serving of humour in the mix, but there are also moments where you cannot help feeling deeply moved.
It all feels quintessentially Spielberg, from the story itself to the gorgeous transitions and effects that show he is still a master of the game.
It’s a movie to see on the big screen so you can hear people gasp, laugh, and maybe even sniffle along with you.
Disclosure Day shows the unknown as something to be understood rather than feared, and maybe this is something audiences will take away with them after the credits roll.
It may be over two and a half hours long, but it didn’t feel it, and I’ll be watching it again.
Disclosure Day is in cinemas from today.
