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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 23745
Released: April 16, 2002 |
| Our Price: $4.30 |
| Used Price: $2.92 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A las vegas mystery man offers a desperate couple $1 million for a night with the wife. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 01/04/2005 Starring: Robert Redford Woody Harrelson Run time: 117 minutes Rating: R Director: Adrian Lyne
Description of Indecent Proposal:
One of the biggest teases in film history, this film's sensational plot finds a young wife (Demi Moore) solicited for sex by a wealthy bachelor (Robert Redford), for which the latter offers to pay a cool million bucks to her and her underachieving husband (Woody Harrelson). The two accept Redford's deal, and their marriage is ruined. The twist in the film, though, is that the sin doesn't lie with the rich guy, but rather with this unfocused, immature, equivocating couple who would do such a thing, naively believing it would get their lives on track. Director Adrian Lyne, who caused an even greater stir by filming Lolita (the one starring Jeremy Irons), thus pulls a kind of thinking person's bait and switch, promising something tawdry and then turning the story around so its focus is on a rite of passage for the estranged spouses. Still, Lyne has some peculiarly garish ideas at times: the final disposition of that million dollars is like a joke out of Monty Python. --Tom Keogh
Indecent Proposal Reviews:
15 years too late 
2008-10-24 - I still remember seeing the trailer for this movie when I was a kid. It seemed so adult, so provocative. Even at the tender age of ten, I recognized the inherent sexual power and enticement in the single image of Robert Redford leaning over a pool table and offering a man $1 million for a night with his wife. Back then, I was desperate to see how the story ended, but my mother didn't let me go to movies like that.
Fast-forward fifteen years to the time when I finally got around to watching the movie. I don't know what took me so long, but in a way I wish I hadn't waited, because if I had seen the movie when I was a kid, I would have appreciated it a lot more. Back then, I wasn't so picky. Back then I didn't notice wooden dialogue that sounded like it came out of a Harlequin romance novel, or stilted, shallow acting. I didn't notice gaping holes in the plot, such as the fact that the couple kept referring to their million dollars even AFTER they paid their lawyer 5% and the point had been belabored again and again that they didn't have $50,000.00 in their own money to bring the figure back up to a cool mil. Back then I wasn't as discerning about screenplays and didn't tend to notice when one was poorly or inadequately written. I never would have noticed the soft focus and lighting designed to keep Robert Redford looking younger than his 57 years, and the lazy soundtrack and tepid score wouldn't have come to my attention at all. And of course predicting the ending was tougher for me back then, so I wouldn't have seen every "twist" in the plot coming from a mile away.
Well as they say, that was then and this is now. Obviously I noticed ALL of these things and they failed to impress me. I found the entire thing forgettable. And since I watched it on a film website, I am in no position to comment on the DVD extras. Overall I can only recommend that unless you too are able to overlook these glaring deficiencies, you stay as far away from this disappointing movie as possible.
Indecent waste of time 
2008-10-01 - This movie came out 15 years ago, and I wasn't impressed back then, even less so now. So why did I watch it again? Because my sister and I had different memories about how it ended. My sister was right, but she's wrong about it being a good movie! But then, she pretty much likes anything with Demi Moore in it. Go figure! The movie is loosely based on the novel by Jack Engelhard.
There are too many huge flaws in the story. Oddly, the word prostitution is never mentioned. The circumstances leading up to the "deal" are odd, too. We never actually find out just what it is about Demi Moore's character that the billionaire finds so appealing. He smiles whenever he watches the husband and wife together, as if he's getting some kind of kick out of it. But what is behind the smiling? Is he thinking that he'd enjoy being a wedge in the relationship, wondering if he has the power to break it up? I suppose we may assume he felt a purely physical attraction, but surely he has easy (and cheaper) access to women even more beautiful than Demi.
We never learn why he offers a million dollars to sleep with Demi. Is it just because he is in a particularly mischievous mood that evening in Las Vegas, or is he really so hopelessly drawn to her? Even more mysterious is why this playboy bachelor in his fifties would fall in love with a happily married woman in a one night stand for which he paid a million dollars. We find out later that the playboy billionaire has a soft spot in his cold heart and for reasons we never discover he decides that Demi is the person who can bring love and happiness to his empty life and sprawling mansion.
The billionaire frequently says how "amazing" Demi is, but he never says why she is amazing. We never see them have a real conversation, or even exchange tender words. As a person, Demi has no dreams of her own. She is a not-so-successful real estate agent, and she doesn't seem to have any ambitions other than to be the wife of a successful architect husband. The husband seems to feel the pressure from this and worries that his wife is feeling disappointed and frustrated. The billionaire criticizes the husband for allowing his wife to sleep with him, but he never criticizes the wife. I ask you, since it is HER body, who is the more responsible party? Not to mention the fact that it was the wife who really convinced the husband it would be okay.
Yet another huge flaw is the unexplained and sudden jump from Demi hating the billionaire to loving him. Even after the deal was consummated, the billionaire continued to interfere with the couple's life in an obvious attempt to break up the marriage. The wife had good reason to hate him for this, because it demonstrated that he was willing to abuse power and hurt people in order to satisfy his selfish desires. But what does Demi do when her husband's anger and doubts get the better of him? She runs back to the billionaire and falls for his sweet talk, and before long they plan to get married.
This movie only pretends to look at how gray-area moral decisions can affect our lives. One could just as well ask if it is moral to be a workaholic miser in order to make a million dollars, or the CEO of, say, a cigarette company. There are a million ways to sacrifice oneself on the altar of money and power. The moral component of this movie is watered down because the husband and wife are not "innocent" or sympathetic characters. They gamble all of their money in Las Vegas, in the idiotic pursuit of getting the money they want quickly, and even after winning a large amount, they gamble all of that on a single bet, which of course they lose. What do I care, and how surprising is it, if such a husband and wife then accept a million dollars for a one night stand?
There are the old jokes about how the price of sex determines whether someone is a prostitute. This movie mixes up money with love. How might the story play out without the billionaire falling in love? How might a good marriage be affected without all of the silly complications in this movie? If a happily married couple were to accept such an offer, is it by definition a bad marriage? If a happily married couple were to make the mistake of accepting such an offer, how might they recover from the mistake? Is accepting such an offer worse, or more damaging, than an affair? Alas, none of these more nuanced topics are covered in this movie. Instead we get a simplistic plot that merely teases. I suppose "Indecent Proposal" was a good prequel for Demi's next movie "Striptease."
Indecent Proposal 
2008-08-08 - I love the movie for it's true meaning of love and the fine actors who played their parts so well.
Very thought provoking :-) 
2008-05-31 - Would you or wouldn't you?
I really enjoyed this movie (although I found it did drag a little in some places), and it really gets you thinking. Of course, you probably know the story line by now but it's something you have to see. It was done well, and the acting wasn't bad; it was the moral delema that I found interesting. As much as David and Dianna loved each other, when they were backed up against a wall with no money whatsoever, along comes John Gage to 'save the day'. They had to know it wouldn't end well and even though they were fine for a while after the event, before long, the mistrust and regrets started up and eventually led them to go separate ways. I won't give up the ending; I thought it ended well and almost wished it kept going to see how they lived after it all.
A really enjoyable film that I watch every now and then. I really love Woody Harelson in this. He was brilliant I thought and the best actor in this movie. See it for yourself and I hope you enjoy it too.
Seems pretty decent now.
2008-05-24 - Indecent Proposal was a shocking film for 1993 but if this film was released now, people wouldn't think much of it. Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson portray a young, broke but very much in love married couple who decide to try their luck in Vegas. Robert Redford plays a wealthy, smug man who offers the couple 1 million dollars if he can have one night with his wife, she says yes and the couple's relationship is forever tested. This film appears to be provocative but it falls short, I just couldn't get into this film, very boring and calculated. Skip this one, it's not that steamy.
