Disclosure (1994)

Plot of Disclosure: Tom Sanders is a happily married man working in a tech company in Seattle, and expecting a promotion as part of a takeover process as the president of the company, Bob Garvin, is selling up. However in a big announcement Bob selects Meredith Johnson for the role. Meredith is a former lover of Tom’s and it is evident that she wants to rekindle their relationship, attempting to seduce him in her office at the end of the day. After a bit of steamy interaction Tom manages to get away, but finds that the following day  Meredith has filed a sexual harassment complaint against him. Meanwhile things are going wrong in the CD-Rom factory in Malaysia which may cause production problems and hazard the buy out.  It appears that to save the situation Tom is to be reassigned to the factory in Austin, Texas, effectively a demotion, but he is helped out by an anonymous email suggesting a possible action, that he should engage a lawyer to represent him, so he does and using evidence accidentally recorded he wins the case. But as a further email warns him, it is not over.

Content: There is no nudity, but the sex scene manages to be quite explicit even so, and is followed later by a discussion where what happened is described, blow by blow, so to speak. Also the type of sexual relationship Tom had had with Meredith is discussed. We see Tom with his family and how he falls in and out as the plot progresses with his wife, also how the office politics come into play as Tom relates to his manager in Malaysia and his assistants in Seattle. Some are on his side and some not so much as they see the possibility of advancement.  Central to the plot is a virtual reality system which is being developed and which Tom uses to get to the Malaysian documents just as Meredith is deleting them.

A View: I had read the book years ago, and so realise that Michael Crichton always liked to involve some unlikely technology in his stuff, in this case the virtual reality, which unfortunately has not really stood the test of time. But that aside it all seems to roll along pretty well, and although we might not really appreciate the cut and thrust of American corporate employment we all know what sexual harassment is, and Roma Maffia as the lawyer managed to exude such wonderful confidence that we were not left in any doubt that she will win the case. So despite its age a film which you could watch, but not with your granny.

Fun Fact: Michael Crichton is said to have been paid a million dollars for the film rights before the book was published.