Indecent Proposal (1993)

Women always love those rich men.

Talk about expensive dates! Billionaire Robert Redford pays for a doozy when, for a cool $1 million, he proposes to a very married Demi Moore that they spend a single night together. Moore’s husband (Woody Harrelson) is a cash-strapped, down-on-his-luck architect who could use the dough to keep their beach house from defaulting to the bank. Will she, or won’t she?

This is a film that I was very skeptical before seeing, because it won three Razzies, including one for Worst Picture. However, it’s not as bad as the rep that it’s given.

The one thing I will give this film is that it does bring up a good debate. Would you actually risk love for 1 million dollars? And if so, how much would you actually think about that decision? The film touches on the measures a marriage will go when guilt and thoughts start getting wrapped up in the couples heads. This is where the film does a very good job, it brings up good questions that we ourselves have to ask what we would do if we were put in the same situation.

However, the problem with this film is that the material could have been handled so much better to be so much more compelling. I think there could have been more talking about the situation these three people were put in, rather than just the after-math. More of this story could have been discussed in the film but instead is just sort of never mentioned, but never anything bigger than a sure 5-minute conversation.

I did like elements to the story, but underneath all the sex and money, there’s a sappy little romance that is pretty cheesy. Also, the rest of the film starts to turn out to be sure soap opera, that may work for some, but others will just be wondering why the hell are they sticking through all this sappy stuff.

The performances here are what somehow won me over. Robert Redford does a very effective job here as the billionaire John Gage. I must say that Redford really charmed the hell out of me here and does a good job of keeping that cool essence to his character, as well as the sneaky, manacle element too. Demi Moore surprisingly does a good job here giving off some pretty emotional scenes, and shows her character for what she is. Woody Harrelson always does a good job no matter what he does, and here it’s no different as he plays every-day man David Murphy. There’s a lot of emotions that pour out of this guy throughout the whole film, but somehow Harrelson makes it all seem pretty believable.

Consensus: The performances are rich, and the film itself brings up good questions about the limitations of marriage and love, but it never does much with them and just makes those questions turn into a sappy soap opera.



  1. Yeah, I think the key word in this review is “melodrama”, because this film can’t be described in any seriousness as anything else. Always enjoy a good Demi Moore cry, and Harrelson is a laugh no matter what he’s in – this film is one of my wife’s favorite “guilty pleasure” films that I just can’t stand watching for the hundredth time.

    Great review Dan! Nailed the film exactly.

  2. I agree that it’s an OK film that has some problems. Still, if my wife was offered a million dollars to sleep with Robert Redford. The only thing I would ask is… “can I watch?”

  3. This script directly reflect European and American mentality. For them marriage and love is like a contract. Any time they will change their partner as they like. No understanding between the partner. No emotional feelings.divorce is common for them.marriage and love should not die. You cannot have sex with another unless you are forced. You cannot sacrifice ur love or sex for money. You can die for love.I could not b able to see the girl when she started loving the rich man again even after he created problems with them. It is is not possible at all. I cannot accept. If she is a real women she should not like that rich Guy again. She must be a real bitch.

Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s