‘Sexual harassment is not about sex. It is about power...’
Now, this is a time capsule of the ’90s if ever I’ve seen one. Michael Douglas as a sex symbol. Anxieties about women taking over the workplace. An internet start-up. Virtual reality. Demi Moore. It’s all here. And while the underlying themes are… problematic to say the least, Disclosure is a lot of fun…
After being wrongfully accused of sexual harassment by his new boss, Meredith (Moore), Tom Sanders (Douglas) must fight back. Donald Sutherland coasts as company head Bob Garvin and Dylan Baker is sufficiently slimy as Tom’s frenemy Philip.
Based on Michael Crichton’s novel and directed by Barry Levinson (Rain Man), Disclosure is the epitome of a film that is of its time. This film could only have dropped in 1994. It perhaps marks the end of the yuppie nightmare subgenre that began with Fatal Attraction in 1987. It’s fitting that it is once again Douglas being tormented by a sexually aggressive woman. His protagonist here is a little less complex, a little less nuanced. Luckily, Moore is excellent in a role that confirms that she was always more than just a pretty face. She earned her status as a leading lady for a while there.
It’s interesting to look back now on the sexual politics of the American office in 1994 and to see how anxieties that were just taking seed back then have now blossomed into the #MeToo movement and various other sexual harassment based reckonings. The surprise is that it took so long.
Disclosure is often a silly film but it’s well-acted and well written and Douglas and Moore are so intense in their respective roles that it’s impossible not to get swept up in it all. A fine example of the genre.