Disclosure - 1994
It just gets most of the minors from the terrific novel right and a handful of the majors all wrong. Case in point, Demi is terrifically sultry here. But her Meredith Johnson flashes not even half the brilliance and wit of the literary character from which she arises.
Likewise, the lawyer character is massively UNDERwritten, and the tag along wife the exact opposite. The novel pulses and moves due to the intricacies and plot machinations built around the mediation. So much of this is based on the Alvarez character. And Blackburn is not nearly the sniveling weasel he needed to be. Yet, Disclosure seems content to rush through these sequences so they can spend more time on other matters.
Still, I get it, I need to be critiquing the film itself, not its source material. While this is nowhere near Levinson’s best, it is an engaging enough legal thriller. Douglas is an adequate everyman, grounded at home and handsome enough that you’d believe the femcat would pounce on him. The bit parts are mostly authentic and well-cast. The virtual reality sequence which is the lynchpin of the climax does not disappoint.
I suppose what ultimately threw me is that the lasting impact of the story to me was its incisive exploration of gender relations, the glass ceiling, and sexual power dynamics vis a vis workplace harassment. When you sideline the minutiae of behind closed door “lawyer chatter” and roundtable talks for fear that it will be less “cinematic,” well you’re left with a pretty run of the mill corporate intrigue flick. While that is perfectly adequate, there was something a cut above which was possible here.
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