Eve Hewson – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: We should also call for full disclosure of past events.

Vampire Bat: There have been no relevant events in the castle for some time.

Vampire Owl: Relevant or not, there are few things we should all know.

Vampire Bat: Dracula Castle is an open and free world.

Vampire Owl: Yet, it holds many secrets.

Vampire Bat: You can always know them in detail if you just ask Uncle Dracula.

Vampire Owl: Dr. Frankenstein has warned about not asking too much.

Vampire Bat: Mr. Frankenstein is not someone we should follow.

Vampire Owl: Well, he is Frankenstein the most awarded scientist.

Vampire Bat: He has awarded too much for his fake inventions and discoveries.

[Gets a ghee podi idli and three cups of Kodaikanal tea].

What is the movie about? :: Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson) finds herself kidnapped and tied up by strangers and she wonders how she has reached this situation of bondage. It is later revealed that her boyfriend and cybersecurity specialist named Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) had stolen top secret material from his employer, a secret United States government organization working privately, known as the Wardex Corporation. Daniel had stolen an artifact of extraterrestrial technology along with many years of documents and hard drives which have footage of extraterrestrial encounters dating to the Roswell incident which had a conspiracy theory related to the United States military recovering a crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft. While many UFO proponents claimed that the Roswell debris really had an alien spacecraft, Daniel finally finds himself with proof about some of it. Daniel threatens the people form organization with the extraterrestrial device he possesses and manages to save Jane and escape.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: As Daniel and Jane try to hide somewhere one would least expect them to be, they approach Sister Maura (Elizabeth Marvel), the Abbess of the Monastery of Saint Clare of the Dawn, as Jane reveals that she was part of the novitiate to become a nun, much to the surprise of Daniel. She adds that she lost her calling and not her faith, as Daniel reveals that he has information which should go to the public and should not remain hidden for long. Jane has her doubts, but trusts him on the same, and decides to leave with him to a safehouse on the very next day, even though the nuns tell her that she can stay there as much as she wants. At the same time, NBC meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is preparing for work when a northern cardinal bird flies into her home and seems to talk to her. The incident stimulates a psychic ability in Margaret to get into people’s thoughts and also speak in languages she has never learned, with her starting with Russian and Korean, the least possible languages she could ever speak.

And what more is to happen here against all odds with twists? :: Getting late to her office while being stopped by the police, she gets directly to a live weather broadcast, and begins speaking in an unknown language, and collapsing right after delivering the words. This alerts the Wardex Corporation which listen to the same words and they send their own people posing as FBI to the hospital where she is admitted. Surprisingly, she is able to identify them as not real FBI and escape with her intuitions. Daniel and Jane reach at the safehouse arranged by the group of people who intend to reveal the truth to humanity. He explains to Jane that Wardex has been experimenting on extraterrestrial creatures who were captured in the last few years and are reverse engineering their technology – he considers himself to be among the chosen people who are to reveal the truth about human brutality on aliens. After watching the clip of Margaret speaking the extraterrestrial language, he understands it in English, surprising him. Now, both Daniel and Margaret intend to find each other to solve all of these, but the corporation has other plans.

The defence of Disclosure Day :: The movie sets up the narrative really well, and has us interested in the movie which establishes some mystery in the beginning and provides us the feeling that something big is sure to follow. The first few sequences had elevated the mood and had us ready to go through the whole thing while feeling full tension, never taking our eyes off the screen. There are some fine visuals and nice sound effects to go with the same, and the feeling of mystery is well-supported by the same, as we keep having the feeling that the paranormal is always around, and the situation created there by something extra-terrestrial uses the effects so well. There is a lot here to explore, starting from corporate opacity, journalistic integrity and whistleblowing to the spiritual side itself, with more than one method provided to look at divinity and morality while facing unexpected situations. Emily Blunt steals the show with her performance too, especially in the beginning stages. Eve Hewson does the same, and her character is in such a multiple level complication that we feel the same so well. Josh O’Connor does a fine job too.

The claws of flaw :: There are too many whistleblowers, journalists, cyber security experts, corporate executives and highly underused personal relationships leaving so many character arcs feeling rushed beyond repair. From the half point, the movie starts a certain amount of drag, with we finding more dialogues than action, and some of them just seemingly stretching the content to that run-time which was never really suitable here. There seems to be so many moments without which the movie could have done well enough, and we cannot keep ourselves from thinking that it has been over-complicated. Then there is that ending which does not really end, and keeps us wondering what it was about, and we still cannot feel that there is a chance for a sequel. The loss of strength as the movie nears the end is a nail right on the head of the alien flick which has been considering itself intellectually and morally superior. Even though we had fallen in love with the movie too early, it only takes half of its journey to decrease our love for the same – the struggle feels real from then.

How it finishes :: Disclosure Day goes on a little bit too long a journey to go through its content which is not much to elongate to its present situation, but its serious way of dealing with the subject has us interested from the first moment itself. The ups and downs of the movie are so much that we feel that the journey is through a highland-lowland combination, driving a slow-moving sedan which is not that easy to steer with roads having too many twists and turns with heavy traffic and not that width. The way in which characters are thrown in there without that much of a development reiterates the same. But that premise is so much interesting to not choose to travel in the path, as keep thinking, and also wondering about what we come across in a divergent way. One might just need to make sure that that enough time is reserved for the same, as watching it in one sitting might need more attention and patience. Then we remember that there is no overdose of anything, and we have aliens coming in as much realistic as they can, for we have alien rights mode activated as if it is about human rights. Jio Hotstar seems to have this one running well in the OTT mode.

Release date: 12 June 2026
Running time: 145 minutes
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Elizabeth Marvel

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

What is the movie about? :: Robin of Loxley (Taron Egerton) has been in love with Marian (Eve Hewson) since he first met her at a stable. He is the lord of a manor, and she is a petty thief, but they have no doubt that they are in love. Still, things change, as he is called to fight in the Crusades in Northern Africa. He fights with great courage there, and defeats as well as kills many, until he makes the decision to stand up against his leaders’ attitude and treatment towards the prisoners of war. He almost gets killed by his own people, but manages to get back to his lands and get back to his feet, thanks to a former Moorish commander known by the name John (Jamie Foxx) who becomes his new mentor. This training that he receives, with the skill that he already has, Robin needs to go against the most powerful man in the county, the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn).

So, what happens with the events to follow? :: With his return, he finds out from his good friend Friar Tuck (Tim Minchin) that Marian is now with another man named Will Tillman (Jamie Dornan). He also finds out that his family property has been confiscated by the Sheriff, who never stops tormenting people in the name of war. Sheriff has his own army to make sure that people pay for the war with all that they have. Robin and Sheriff decide that this has to stop now or people will be left with nothing. There is no hope for the common man, and Robin decides to become that hope, something which would include more than one robbery and fight. But with the knights of the Sheriff being among the strongest, can he find a way through all these to save the common man from losing everything?

The defence of Robin Hood :: There is no shortage of style in Robin Hood, and the action scenes are all nicely done. They might feel to be a little overdose and edited in such a way that it might be a little difficult to follow for the eyes. But they do work, and has our attention more than any other. The setting also feels strange at times, but it is nicely done. We can see that the divergence that this movie has is rather too high, but even in that case, the attempt is to be appreciated for bringing a different version. The archery scenes are among the best, and the visuals with the lighting brings a special effect. The messages revolution and equality runs right through the movie, and a few parts of the movie are funny, even though we feel that it is rather unintentional. The ending also sets the path nicely for a possible sequel even though that seems not coming as we consider the situation here.

The claws of flaw :: The way in which the tale in this movie is changed becomes rather strange. It is too much of a diversion, and it is not easy to digest many of those changes. Some of them feel unnecessary even for any standards. The case of John might be the strangest of them all. The movie could have also used some better editing, especially with its fight scenes. Everything keeps moving from one side to somewhere else without warning. The movie itself is clueless at times about the idea as well as the story, even though it keeps us entertained for most part. Most of the time, the movie also doesn’t look like its from the medieval age. It goes on trying to become like King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, a movie which does the same thing to the King Arthur legend as this one does to the Robin Hood legend. Well, only some movies could change for the best.

The performers of the soul :: Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett are not here to leave that big mark, but the performances are okay. Taron Egerton had those miserable overrated Kingsman movies, and this one is surely above them, and he also has some nice dialogues to go with the same. The Irish actress Eve Hewson surely brings some charm to the movie, even though her role here is limited. Jamie Foxx doesn’t have the impact to create in this character who is the trainer – it has to be noted that Mohanlal in the Malayalam movie with the similar thief Kayamkulam Kochunni had so many times bigger impact as the trainer, and that movie itself was way ahead of this one with its thief who stole from the rich and helped the poor. Ben Mendelsohn’s Sheriff of Nottingham is not that much of a villain that we expected. Tim Minchin’s version of Friar Tuck is mostly irritating, and Paul Anderson’s Guy of Gisborne doesn’t have that big impact. Jamie Dornan’s Will Tillman can have the great strength only in a sequel if it ever happens.

Soul exploration :: There are different ways in which this particular movie can work, and one of them is similar to the American War on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, with different moments pointing to the same in one way or the other. There are people supporting both sides in a war, as we notice. We also feel that this might be a Batman movie which is not good enough, and something which could have been a different kind of Dark Knight, but isn’t. The hero does spend some time with a mentor, is rich and decides to save his town in a mask, that much is clear. But the fact that Robin Hood is not Batman, and he is not supposed to be like Green Arrow who goes through almost the same things and has the hood and arrow dressed in green. Was he called into the DC Universe to be the Green Arrow? One has to wonder about the similarities visible here.

How it finishes :: Even with all the style, it is strange that Robin Hood makers could think that this would be enough, if they did have that idea. Robin Hood is not our usual hero whom we can change and get away with it. He is not Batman, Superman, Spider-Man or any other superhero to have different version. The same was proved by the earlier adaptation of the Arthur legend. Even with a cast which included Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, the 2010 version which felt closer to history couldn’t go on make it big as expected – these people had to be careful about it when making a movie like this, but the problem here is that there seems to be no such concern. Maybe this would work a little better with the 3D which was not there when we watched it – but about the movie, it is just random action entertainment which isn’t bothered about making things better.

Release date: 23rd November 2018 (India); 21st November 2018 (USA)
Running time: 138 minutes
Directed by: Otto Bathurst
Starring: Taron Egerton, Eve Hewson, Jamie Foxx, Ben Mendelsohn, Tim Minchin, Jamie Dornan, Murray Abraham, Paul Anderson, Josh Herdman, Bjorn Bengtsson