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Indecent Proposal Customer Reviews (7 - 9 of 30 Reviews)

Nothing Indecent about this dull movie. Tame and uninspired
Indecent Proposal's intriguing premise starts off with a provocative question: "What would you do if I offered you a million dollars to spend the night with your wife?" In its attempt to explore sexuality, morals and ethics in America, the movie's writers, producers, and director are too afraid of the controversial subject matter to provide a clear answer to the question it asks the audience. Instead of being thought provoking film, the movie deteriorates into another predictable by the numbers forgettable commercial Hollywood drama. If the studios gave me million dollars I could make a better film than this.
Indecent Proposal follows a struggling California married couple drowning$50,000 in debt. Out of work and desperate for cash, they go on a trip to Vegas. Browsing in a hotel store, Diana runs into a Billionaire John Gage who has eyes on her. He offers to buy her a $5000 dress she has eyes on. Diana says she can't be bought. Gage sees a challenge. Shawn sees a predictable plot twist.
Thinking nothing of her encounter she returns to the gambling tables with her husband. After winning $25,000, Halfway towards their goal, the couple heads back to their room planning to gamble more unaware of how Hollywood casinos operate. Predictably they lose all their winnings. Both run into Gage who asks Diana to go to his table for luck. Gage plays a high stakes game betting a million dollars on a crap table. After winning his high stakes bet, Gage asks the couple to join him in his suite. There he proposes his indecent proposal: A night with the wife in exchange for a million dollars. The cash-strapped couple declines, but ponders taking him up on his offer on the way back to the hotel room. Set your watch for what happens next.
Soon after the proposal the movie falls apart. Gage buys her the expensive dress sweetens the pot. Upon getting the dress the couple decides takes up Gage on his offer. With his wife on the way, Woody hangs out with a lawyer buddy. Soon after talking to him, Harrelson's character gets second thoughts. He races for the roof to cancel the deal but is too late to stop the helicopter. How predictable.
On the boat we watch Diana getting ready. She and Gage meet up and have dinner and drinks. We don't know if they have relations; the movie leaves that as a mystery. Diana and her husband return to California to pay their debts. They soon find out John Gage has bought out their mortgage. Things start to get ridiculous from here. The manipulative Gage only bought the house as part of a tactic to possess Diana. He goes to her real estate job and tries to court her. I guess one night of her good stuff wasn't good enough for her. Harrelson's character starts to become insecure, wanting graphic details of the encounter. His jealousies cause him to act irrational and angry like every other movie husband. Feeling stressed out, Diana leaves her husband for the super rich Gage. Yawn.
Losing his woman, Harrelson takes a teaching job and starts working on his future. Getting the divorce papers, he goes to an auction for animals. There he spends the one million dollars on a hippo to prove how much he loves her. He signs the divorce papers and she goes off with her billionaire man. He gets a change of heart when he realizes she still loves him. Yawn.
Later in the car, Gage and his driver talk about how they've played this game over a dozen times. Diana requests he stop the car. They break up and she gets on a bus. Later she meets her ex-husband at the pier he proposed to her at and the movie comes to a clunky unsatisfying close.
The performances are terrible. The entire cast is uninspired; no one in this film makes an effort to bring any type of depth to their characters. Woody Harrelson is horribly miscast. I don't believe him as an architecture expert. Demi Moore is wooden in the role of Diana. She brings no dimension to the character at all. I feel no tension or stress from her even though she's playing a woman conflicted by tremendous emotional and moral pressures. Robert Redford is charming and handsome, as John Gage but the character seems like a one-dimensional caricature instead of a human being. Look for Billy Bob Thornton in a small role as a tourist.
Indecent Proposal isn't indecent it's just bland. It doesn't take any of the risks in its exploration of its taboo subject matter. Aside from some lukewarm sex scenes early on between the married couple, the movie is just another by the numbers Hollywood drama pretending to be a thought provoking film. The provocative ideas about sexual morals and ethics advertised in its premise are just a selling point to trick customers into spending money on it. Don't let this movie con you out of your hard earned cash. Instead of accepting this mediocre proposal on the video rack, I suggest you pick up Summer of '42, When Harry Met Sally or Love Story.


WARNING
This is not exactly a review, more of a warning: never, and I mean never watch this movie together with your wife/girlfriend. Because if you do, inevitably you will be asked a question at some point: would you agree to take the money if you were Woody Harrelson's character? WHATEVER you answer will be WRONG. Don't want to ruin your relationship - watch this one alone.

For pete's sake Demi, just choose Redford
I really love this impossible movie-unbelievable premise that an uber rich stranger would offer a broke couple a million dollars to sleep with the wife (Demi Moore); a badly miscast husband (Woody Harrelson) and possibly the worst female wardrobes ever worn in a movie. I am reminded of Julia Robert's hooker character in Pretty Woman telling her "employer" (Richard Gere) "Gosh you're a rich good looking guy, you can get anyone you want." Be that as it may, I actually tracked down the macho book that this movie was made from and boy did the screenwriters take a teeny premise and run with it. The problem is that villian? (Robert Redford) has impeccable manners, is reputed to be great in the sack and looks like an ageing blonde god and the husband (Harrelson) is a total abusive loser and then the audience is supposed to believe that "Dee" makes the right choice between them at the end. I always turn it off at the zoo fundraiser scene. Enjoy!

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