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Indecent Proposal
One of the most talked-about movies of 1993, Indecent Proposal is a slick and sexy romantic drama whose sketchy screenplay is almost made up for by the three terrific performances from the stars.
Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore play David and Diana Murphy, a happily married couple who are having serious financial problems. David impulsively wakes up Diana in the middle of the night and decides the answer to their problems is a trip to Las Vegas. David manages to accumulate almost $9000 in winnings but loses is just as quickly. Just as they are about to give up and go home, they are approached by a billionaire named John Gage, played by Robert Redford, who offers David a million dollars for one night alone with Diana.
Jack Englehard's screenplay, based on a novel by Amy Holden Jones, is a little spotty, allowing parts of the story to play offscreen that should have been played onscreen. Most importantly, the night that John and Diana spend together. Other than their first kiss, the story skips over the rest of the night and then moves right to the somewhat predictable repercussions of David and Diana's fateful decision to do this We are led to believe that the decision to do this was something David and Diana made together, but if you watch closely the extremely well-directed scene where they are discussing doing this, it appears that Diana really is attracted to John and wants to do this, using their financial troubles as an excuse, but I'm pretty sure the individual viewer will interpret this differently.
I was pleasantly surprised that David, Diana, and John didn't do this on a handshake and signed a written contract drawn up by David's lawyer and BFF (Oliver Platt). I also loved that as soon as it was about to happen, David immediately regretted it and tried to stop Diana before swept her away by helicopter to his yacht. But the fact that we didn't see exactly what happened between John and Diana turned Diana into the villain of the piece because she refused to talk about it, and I'm not sure that was fair based on what was supposedly a decision the Murphys came to together. Needles to say, David and Diana's marriage is destroyed by all of this and their reconciliation isn't a slam dunk either.
Although I didn't like the way the story played out, what I did enjoy about this film was the charismatic performances by the three stars. Redford is elegant and urbane and never allows us to dislike John Gage and if I had seen this movie before I had done my favorite Woody Harrelson performances list, this \one would have been in the top ten, I have rarely enjoyed Harrelson onscreen as much as did here...sexy, intelligent, passionate, he doesn't make a wrong move here. Demi Moore is luminous creating undeniable chemistry with Redford and Harrelson. Adrian Lyne's direction is not so dependent on his eye for the erotic as it is normally, but he nails the romantic angle. With a more courageous screenplay, this could have been something incredible, but it's still quite entertaining.
One of the most talked-about movies of 1993, Indecent Proposal is a slick and sexy romantic drama whose sketchy screenplay is almost made up for by the three terrific performances from the stars.
Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore play David and Diana Murphy, a happily married couple who are having serious financial problems. David impulsively wakes up Diana in the middle of the night and decides the answer to their problems is a trip to Las Vegas. David manages to accumulate almost $9000 in winnings but loses is just as quickly. Just as they are about to give up and go home, they are approached by a billionaire named John Gage, played by Robert Redford, who offers David a million dollars for one night alone with Diana.
Jack Englehard's screenplay, based on a novel by Amy Holden Jones, is a little spotty, allowing parts of the story to play offscreen that should have been played onscreen. Most importantly, the night that John and Diana spend together. Other than their first kiss, the story skips over the rest of the night and then moves right to the somewhat predictable repercussions of David and Diana's fateful decision to do this We are led to believe that the decision to do this was something David and Diana made together, but if you watch closely the extremely well-directed scene where they are discussing doing this, it appears that Diana really is attracted to John and wants to do this, using their financial troubles as an excuse, but I'm pretty sure the individual viewer will interpret this differently.
I was pleasantly surprised that David, Diana, and John didn't do this on a handshake and signed a written contract drawn up by David's lawyer and BFF (Oliver Platt). I also loved that as soon as it was about to happen, David immediately regretted it and tried to stop Diana before swept her away by helicopter to his yacht. But the fact that we didn't see exactly what happened between John and Diana turned Diana into the villain of the piece because she refused to talk about it, and I'm not sure that was fair based on what was supposedly a decision the Murphys came to together. Needles to say, David and Diana's marriage is destroyed by all of this and their reconciliation isn't a slam dunk either.
Although I didn't like the way the story played out, what I did enjoy about this film was the charismatic performances by the three stars. Redford is elegant and urbane and never allows us to dislike John Gage and if I had seen this movie before I had done my favorite Woody Harrelson performances list, this \one would have been in the top ten, I have rarely enjoyed Harrelson onscreen as much as did here...sexy, intelligent, passionate, he doesn't make a wrong move here. Demi Moore is luminous creating undeniable chemistry with Redford and Harrelson. Adrian Lyne's direction is not so dependent on his eye for the erotic as it is normally, but he nails the romantic angle. With a more courageous screenplay, this could have been something incredible, but it's still quite entertaining.