Indecent Proposal (1993) * * *

 

Directed by: Adrian Lyne

Starring:  Demi Moore, Robert Redford, Woody Harrelson, Seymour Cassel, Oliver Platt, Rip Taylor

Indecent Proposal raises moral questions even thirty-plus years after its release.  Would you sleep with someone if you were offered one million dollars to do so?  Some say yes, some equivocate, some say no, but of course when the million becomes real and not an abstract concept, would the no turn to a yes?  Billionaire John Gage (Redford) puts the theory into practice by offering a financially struggling married woman one million dollars to spend one night with him.   

Rewinding to how Diana (Moore) and her architect husband David (Harrelson) came into such dire straits.  A recession causes financial woes.  David and Diana travel to Las Vegas to try and turn the last of their savings into beaucoup money.  They don't succeed, but Gage sees Diana, likes her, and offers the couple the proposal.  After they agree, with David having more reservations than Diana, lawyers draft up contracts to be signed and Gage soon flies Diana to his yacht, where the deed commences offscreen.  A lesser movie would have made the movie about the sex.  Indecent Proposal doesn't focus on the sex, but the pain it causes afterwards.  Jealous David has second thoughts and tries to stop Diana, but no luck.  He spends the better portion of the movie brooding and stewing.  He wishes they said no to Gage, but too late. 

Indecent Proposal provides unexpected dimensions in John Gage.  Why does he offer the money to Diana and David?   Because he can, and because we sense there is something missing in his life.  When he shows Diana his home, she says joy is missing, and Gage agrees.  He falls for Diana, and David's behavior nudges her towards him.  Gage is obscenely wealthy, but we also see he has a heart.  Another movie would've turned Gage into a stalker or a killer, with Diana and David putting their differences aside to defeat him.  Thankfully, Indecent Proposal doesn't go the thriller route.  It deals with an amoral act and its fallout.  

I feel the romance between Gage and Diana seems forced and Gage is simply a better choice for Diana than David, who in my mind wants to have the situation both ways.  The Redford performance shows us more dimensions than we expect from a character we think simply throws his money around.  He does, but there is also a tenderness there because he longs for the one thing money can't buy.