Disclosure Director: Barry Levinson

Rip It Up, Issue 210, 1 February 1995, Page 38

Disclosure Director: Barry Levinson

Barry Levinson’s latest movie could be seen as something of a backlash, placing a man (the

unlikely Michael Douglas) as the victim of sexual harassment and a woman (Demi Moore) as the villain. Whether or not Douglas and Demi Moore strain credibility in view of their previous screen roles is a moot point, but Disclosure also works as an unsettling commentary on the paranoia and desperation lashing at the business world in the 19905.

Most of the characters are trapped in glass prisons — Neil Spisak’s resourceful office-sets with glass dividing walls are creepily effective. Bars, grids and grills are recurring images. Life is dominated by computer communication: the credits are fed out in typescript, the film is propelled along by e-mail communications, and it’s the übiquitous cellular phone that has a crucial part to play in the denouement. In one rivetting scene, Douglas physically enters into the world of virtual reality to retrieve some material, only to confront a computerised Moore determined to destroy the evidence he wants.

Disclosure is not all stunning decor and high tech communications. Paul Attanasio’s script, from Michael Crichton’s novel, handles the constant bantering and bargaining with a crisp wit, and, in an excellent cast, Roma Maffia as Douglas’s tenacious, street-wise lawyer (“She’d change her name to TV Listing to get it in the paper,” scoffs one character) is one hell of an advocate.

WILLIAM DART