When the opportunity arrives to buy an ocean-side property where David can design his dream house, they jump on it while tightening their wallets. High school sweethearts Diana (Demi Moore) and David (Woody Harrelson) have been in love since the day they met and supported one another with complete devotion. Unfortunately, the end result is a mildly sensual melodrama that did little with its interesting plot, but coasts on a moderately entertaining pace and a strong performance from Moore. With Hollywood-hottie at the time, Demi Moore, in the lead role and the director of '9 ½ Weeks' behind the camera, the idea was surefire box office gold. On paper, it sounds intriguing and provocative, with plenty of room for some steamy encounters. A handsome billionaire offers a cool million to a down-on-their-luck couple for a one-night stand. David is wracked by this moral dilemma, but Diana finally makes the decision on her own, with ensuing consequences for their ideal marriage and their bank account.Īfter helming the incendiary 'Fatal Attraction' and the phantasmagoric 'Jacob's Ladder', Adrian Lyne went on to direct a "high concept" romance, which in Hollywood-speak means a simple plot that's easily summarized by its title. John invites Diana and David to an opulent party, and it is there that John offers David $1 million for a night with his wife. While Diana is in the fancy casino boutique trying to lift some candy, she is spotted by billionaire John Gage (Robert Redford), who is immediately attracted to her. At first, they get $25,000 ahead - but inevitably the house always wins, and they end up losing it all. Dead broke, they borrow $5000 from David's father and head to Las Vegas to try to win money to pay the mortgage on their house. Suddenly, David loses his job, and they can't make the mortgage payments. At times ridiculously corny, often strangely compelling, and never less than entertaining, this may lose its bottle towards the end, but at least it had some bottle to start with.Overview - Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson play Diana and David Murphy, high-school sweethearts who marry and who are doing very well - Diana is a successful real-estate agent, and David is an idealistic architect who has built a dream house by the ocean - until the recession hits. Sadly, of course, the quality control doesn't last, with the tension gradually slipping away until we find ourselves, in the final, risible scene, back in unintentional chuckle territory. Redford, as you'd expect, is brilliant as the scheming-yet-strangely-vulnerable rich git (and one cannot help but ponder that as a millionaire divorcee living on his own in Utah, Redford must have unusual insights into this character), Moore is beautiful enough to carry off the central plot point, and even Harrelson displays something other than his usually dim berk persona by successfully playing a sensitive thinking type in little round glasses. Indeed, it is in this mid-section that the cast, director Adrian Lyne and screenwriter Amy Holden Jones conspire to present some seriously interesting emotional shenanigans, with what happened that night remaining a mystery to both the audience and hubby, and the subsequent jealousies and power struggles ringing entirely true. This is all about power and he plays the game brilliantly, driving a wedge between the lovebirds as they decide to go for the deal ("It's just my body, it's not my heart, it's not my mind") and then watch their supposedly invincible marriage buckle under the strain. Forget the carping that the hunksome Redford would never, in reality, have to pay for a woman. Once our billionaire gambler (Redford) comes on to the scene with his "indecent proposal" (one million dollars for a night with Demi), however, things brighten up considerably, with the complex emotions on display being handled with remarkable aplomb. There have been unintentional chuckles courtesy of a silly flashback to school days (Demi's grin revealing a gobful of dental braces, Woody with a rug from hell) there have been the obligatory "steamy" sex scenes - lots of shots of a tanned Demi in little white knickers - to illustrate just how much they damn well fancy each other and there has been much gnashing of teeth as the horrors of unemployment dawn. Just 15 minutes into Indecent Proposal, and things are not looking good. So, it's - rather unwisely - off to Las Vegas to try and raise the readies to fulfil that dream of a self-designed pad on the beach, or at least to keep body and soul together till the boom years return. The dog loves them both, and all is well in their comfy Californian lives until, in a spectacularly 90s-style plot development, the recession strikes and they get booted from their gainful employment as an architect (him) and estate agent (her).
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