Review of Indecent Proposal (1993) by Jonny P — 04 Sep 2008

Indecent Proposal is a tricky one to fathom. Robert Redford wants to sleep with Demi Moore, and offers her and her husband Woody Harrelson one million dollars to do so. The couple can solve their financial problems if they agree to the deal, there's just the knotty problem that it might wreck their marriage.

Initially it seems an ingenious concept, the kind that has you interested before you've even put the film on, but when you sit down and watch the thing, you realise the it's not really about the basic idea, it's about the fallout, and suddenly all the mystery comes crashing down.

The brutal truth is that the bulk of the film is patchy. Though Redford, Moore and Harrelson are excellent, they are undermined by Adrian Lyne's occasionally naff direction, which somehow sticks out a mile even though the film is an unashamed melodrama.

What else doesn't help is that though the film has a reputation for being controversial, patently the ending is anything but. The reunion of Moore and Harrelson is about as Hollywood as it gets. Lyne completely loses any bravery he had in the early part of the film, as we, the audience are reassured that Moore and Harrelson's love transcends all their moral bad behaviour.

What? The whole point of the film was surely to raise questions. To answer it in this trite way patronises the audience and replaces how the film should have finished, with ambiguity.