Disclosure

DISCLOSURE ⭐⭐⭐ How would you react if your best friend's 9 year-old son had just abused and attacked your 4 year-old daughter during a Summer gathering? It's a very complicated situation, utterly uncomfortable and dysfunctional. It involves kids, modern behavior and bad influence, hormonal confusion, violence, precocious sex. And if such scandal happens to be in a small, conservative community, including a politician's reputation, things can get out of control, for the sake of good values. Writer-Director Michael Bentham's debut feature isn't shy of putting all the controversial matter on the table, as the couples, parents of the children, are reunited to discuss the issue and solve it at whatever cost it will take. The film opens with a slow-motion, friendly-like look at the community in movement through the sidewalks, and immediately cuts to the climax of a sexual activity between a couple, enjoying it while recording themselves. It's a sign there's something bizarre about to happen, as the residents of such a quiet community seem to have unusual, straight-forward habits. The use of slow motion continues through the film, especially highlighting moments of extreme distress. Cinematographer Mark Carey does a fabulous job with enhanced lights on the sunny, green-filled Australian estate, with beautiful observations on insects, shades into the woods, the shining water, the heat, fire, leaves, and of course, the facial confrontations. The four actors who play both couples dealing with this disturbing moral issue give courageously convincing performances, roles influenced by stage-techniques but in complete harmony with the magic imagery of the screen. Another fascinating attribute to the film is the fact we barely see the children. There's a glimpse of the boy in an euphoric attack at the beginning, and we finally see the accuser, the 4-year-old Natasha at the very last scene. With the premise of abuse predominating throughout the narrative, many ideas are proposed, with relevance on modern adults' behavior, and children's behavior, resulting in a stirring, investigative and thought-provoking analysis on loyalty, righteousness, acceptance, frustration, privilege and sexual taboo. Director Bentham masterly pushes the players to drastic conclusions, as they insist on their distinctive perspectives on the case, hurting, offending and committing attacks to each other's privacy in order to save themselves from the scandal. A very satisfying and well-done dramatic production, it suffers from repetitive dialogue, but despite that flaw, it's a controversial, gripping, intense and authentic account on human instinct and priorities.

Disclosure is a well-acted and thoughtful film that could easily have been a play but does a lot with its single location and miniscule cast and budget. It deals with a single afternoon in which two couples clash in increasingly ugly ways over an accusation made by one of their children against another. The premise itself reminded me quite a bit of 2011's "Carnage", although I actually think it gets better results than Polanski did, and with a much thornier topic.

While it does a detailed and subtle job of equally portraying the realities of the four principle characters, it seems (inevitably, in 2020) to come down on the side of 'believe all unfounded accusations any female makes against any male, no matter how old' and therefore on the side of treating 9 year old children like 50-year old repeat sex offenders. Which I guess is what the glowing reviews mean when they say it's "timely".

The basic struggle at the centre could have been dealt with in less-than feature-length time, and, while it is not dull, or poorly told, it does feel like it drags a little. Having said that, I appreciate what it tries to do and so recommend watching the once, with the above reservations.

This film is better than most single location quarrelling films. It is set in a beautiful house, and every scene is beautifully constructed. They quarrel with a reason, as they all have different missions to accomplish.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. The acting was strong and it was refreshing to watch something that was not over produced. I don't know if I would class it as a typical thriller but it did have me held in suspense from start to finish. I loved the slow build at the beginning and the bushland setting helped me feel deeply the life of Australians in their bushfire prone environment. The theme of this film is timely. Pedophelia in regards to children's relationships with other children and the complicated relationships between adult friends and that of their children. Many of us know this challenge and this movie hits it head on. People, power with a dash of politics and a whole lot of suspense and emotion makes for a great film.

The limited characters and dependence on back and forth dialogue make this far more like a play than a film, with the corresponding static quality of action as opposed to lively speech. A host of issues are touched on and secrets are revealed, betrayed, bounced around... To what ultimate effect? Ah. That will depend on the viewer. Personally I got irritated at them all and didn't really feel like I ended up anywhere.