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Rating:  -
First off, I usually love Barry Levinson's work. "The Natural", "Avalon", just to name a couple of beautifully shot, well-told stories. Now here comes "Disclosure", which, as farce, rates about a 41/2. Unfortunately, that's not the category it's supposed to occupy. There are so many unbelievable premises in this film that it's hard to know where to start. All due respect, Michael Douglas as the loyal husband doing his damndest to fend off a beautiful, sexy woman without losing his job? That's more than a stretch--it's a bungee jump. Demi Moore begging for sex from anyone? Another bungee jump. The loyal wife, sitting and listening to her husband's accuser (that's right, Demi Moore turns the table on Mike and charges him with harrasment) describe in full detail, a la White House intern, what transpired. Does the betrayed wife try to throw Demi out the skyscraper window? No. Choke her? No. She sits and quietly simmers like someone who's been waiting in the doctor's office too long. Bungee 3 for that one. The last and biggest bungee is the idea of the story itself. What exactly is the point of this film? That men get harassed in the workplace? A film more like, "The Insider", which stayed on point about its subject, would be more in order. Finally, here's a test: Watch the film, then switch the roles. Make Michael Douglas the big honcho and Demi Moore the victim. Isn't that boring? Know why? Because it's happened so much, nobody wants to make movies about it any more. That speaks volumes.
Rating:  -
Tacky thriller that lures one into thinking it's going to be controversial. One thing about *Disclosure*, it's not unprofessional: director Barry Levinson, in his (apparent) tale of sexual harassment, delivers a pretty hot payoff early in the movie that certainly appeals to our prurient interests. During the first half-hour, we wait for Demi Moore to "attack" Michael Douglas, and she certainly does, to our voyeuristic delight. Indeed, the entire movie fairly hums with a rancid energy that's at times entertaining to watch. But the plot soon reveals that the filmmakers aren't really all that interested in the subject of sexual harassment, even if the woman's the harasser. Lust is doubtless too deep a subject for them to want to fool around with, so they simply make Moore's character a cold career-type whose motives aren't sensual but strictly professional. She wants Douglas out of the company, and her attack on him turns out to be just a devious means to a desired end. This gives Levinson further license to waste our time with (now horribly dated) "virtual-reality" scenarios involving corporate espionage. (The "digital" Demi that appears when Douglas is in the virtual-reality world looking for some file or other is a pure howler. Almost makes this movie worth a rent.) *Disclosure* finally becomes just another dumb suspense movie. But Demi sure was something in those days, eh?
Rating:  -
Michael Douglas and Demi Moore fight the battle of the sexes in the film version of Michael Crichton's novel "Disclosure". A rising star at one of those Seattle firms that churns out consumer high-tech, Tom Sanders (Douglas) finds his career at stake instead. Losing his promotion to Meredith Johnson (Moore), who knows less about high-tech than sleeping her way to an exec position, Sanders tries to make the best of things. This is complicated by three things - Sanders's division is having problems delivering a line of new CD-ROM players, his company is in the formative stages of a crucial merger and Johnson has set her sights on him....for something. Sanders and Johnson had had an affair some time before, and Johnson's predatory habits give a not-so-subtle hint as to what that must have been like. When Sanders - now a family man - resists, Johnson turns the tables on him, accusing him of sexual harassment.
Director Barry Levinson wisely underplays the controversial aspects of the book. (Despite Crichton's sincere belief that he was taking on a PC establishment that refuses to see women in terms other than victims of aggressive white males, the corporate intrigue aspect of the story undermines this - Sanders's victimization stemmed largely from forces that wanted Johnson to oust Sanders. This is a common occurrence in Crichton's polemical novels where the author rails at forces like PC or media manipulation when some undrlying cloak and dagger is the real culprit.) Those who shun Sanders after Johnson's accusations become known are reacting less to PC angst than a fear for their careers. Instead, Levinson plays up The "man against the conspiracy" angle - with Douglas playing detective, sneaking into computer files, pulling out answering machine messages and tracking down any leads. Much of the suspense is artificial, but it works.
Rating: -
This movie is just dumb. First of all, most plot points make little to no sense. Much of it is based around a new file system called Corridor - the most useless invention ever, which takes all the convenience of a computer file system, then makes it totally inconvenient by making it look and act like the old paper'n'cabinet storage systems that computers were designed to replace. In fact, the only reason for this is to set up a virtual reality scene, to add to the film's pattern of style over substance. Than you have the silly mystery unfolding with clever twists - like Demi Moore's character accidently spilling her whole evil scheme right in front of Michael Douglas! Or how about the random "solution" to the film's problem that comes so far out of nowhere it's desperately hard to appreciate it as some sort of resolution to what is supposed to be an evolving conclusion. But it doesn't really matter, because most of the acting and plot twists are so contrived you shouldn't be that involved, and DISCLOSURE becomes an unintentional comedy rather than the sleek, sexy thriller it intended on.
Rating:  -
When most people watch movies that have been made from books, they usually come away from the movie thinking, "The book is better."
My own response to that comment might be, "They're pretty equal in quality." With the exception of a few name changes ("Twinkle Drive" in the book becomes "Arcomax" in the movie; from "Louise Fernandez" to "Katherine Alvarez"), the movie follows the plot of the book pretty closely. It's actually one of the first modern movies I've seen that doesn't stray that far from the book.
The premise of the movie is an intriguing one to me. High profile cases, such as the confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas and the testimony given by Anita Hill, have increased people's awareness of sexual harassment exponentially. Based upon our personal perceptions and "expectations" of the people around us, we "expect" men to be more sexually aggressive than women and therefore more likely to engage in sexual harassment or rape. But what can happen if a man is harassed by a woman? Watch "Disclosure" and find out.
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