Indecent Proposal *** (1993, Robert Redford, Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, Seymour Cassel, Oliver Platt, Billy Bob Thornton) – Classic Movie Review 1905

Director Adrian Lyne’s mesmerisingly compulsive 1993 erotic thriller pitches a financial dilemma against a moral dilemma. It stars Robert Redford as John Gage, a billionaire who meets loving, but newly cash-troubled yuppie married couple, architect David and real estate broker Diana Murphy (Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore), in Las Vegas.

They are there desperately trying to win $50,000 in order to get their lives back on track as they stand to lose everything they own after the recession hits. So they go to Vegas to have one shot at winning the money they need for the loans to finance the dream house they are building. Naturally, they lose at the tables, but then they are approached by Redford’s character, who makes them an offer they can’t refuse of a cool $1million if Moore’s Diana character will spend the night with him. Going ahead with this would threaten to destroy the couple’s marriage.

Based on the novel by Jack Engelhard, and adapted as a screenplay by Amy Holden Jones, this movie certainly has a fascinating premise and thought-provoking situation on its side to recommend it. They exercise a magnetic attraction through the painstaking but flamboyant handling in the typically flashy and intense film-making style of director Lyne, and the engaging, dynamic and punchy playing by the three highly appealing, well-cast stars determined to be up to the demands of the ‘important’ movie with its ‘big themes’.

And even if the film seems artificial and contrived, it is still packed full of entertainment value and centred on a topic to provoke endless discussion and stories afterwards. It’s a pity the movie tends to fall apart in the unbelievable last half hour, but overall it is a compelling watch.

Seymour Cassel (as Mr Shackleford), Oliver Platt, Billy Bob Thornton, Rip Taylor, Joel Brooks, Billy Connolly, Sheena Easton and Herbie Hancock also appear.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1905

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