Shag A Limp Billionaire or Keep Your Woody? (Indecent Proposal (DVD))

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Indecent Proposal (DVD)
Date:	29/07/01 (134 review reads)
Rating:

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Raking through the oldies once more...

David(Woody Harrelson) and Diana(Demi Moore) head to Vegas in the hope of gaining enough money to satisfy their creditors after the recession leaves them in a financial mire. Other than a distinct lack of money they are the perfect couple but their relationship is about to go through a rocky patch. Hitting Vegas and now desperate for money they stumble across billionaire businessman Robert Redford who is instantly attracted to Diana and eventually offers the couple a small fortune if he can spend one night of passion with her. Of course, he wants more than just the one night and really intends to lure Diana away from David for good with money and sob stories. Can money buy you love? What would you do for a million dollars? Can a movie this contrived hold your interest for more than 10 minutes? Those are just some of the questions posed in almost 2 hours of sleep inducing lack of action.

$1,000,000 for a night with Demi Moore? Haaaaaa!! I?d give you a fiver but I suppose things have changed a little since the time this was made and she isn?t exactly up there on anyone?s list of top babes anymore. The dilemma is still the same though. If some stodgy rich dude baring more than a passing resemblance to Robert Redford offered you a cool million for a midnight roll on silk sheets would you take up the offer? If you were that person?s partner would you be horrified by the prospect or actively encourage them to dance the horizontal rhumba if it meant lining your pockets in a big way when you are currently facing bankruptcy? For a million I might take wrinkly Robbie up on the offer myself but I?m male so I guess he wouldn?t ask... :oP~

Of course, one of the major problems with this movie is that Robert Redford is/was regarded as being quite desirable and Woody Harrelson, to be charitable, is somewhat less so, so the dilemma posed wasn?t actually seen as being that much of a biggie. Dump the hick and jump the
billionaire was the general concensus of opinion as I remember it in my own personal circle of friends and a few years later down the line I can?t much has changed. Indecent Proposal was always nothing more than a one trick pony, it made you think by posing it?s morally dubious would you/wouldn?t you question but other than that it?s quite dull. I suppose the real question the movie attempts to pose is ?can money buy you love?? and I bet you can?t predict the answer it gives can you? lol!

Adrian Lynne is probably best known as the director of Fatal Attraction and whilst this might be a somewhat different approach to the idea of obsession and dangerous attractions it is still something of a retread of old ideas. Here we are looking at Redford?s lonely billionaire who has everything but true love who, using kind words, personal stories and his cash, tries to prise the object of his desire from her partner instead of through Glenn Close?s guilt trips, violence and bunny boiling. In essence it?s the same thing taken from a different, more gentle angle. I?ll swallow rehashed ideas however, if I couldn?t I would never watch a Hollywood movie ever again, but what killed Indecent Proposal for me was the implausible direction the plot takes after an initially intruiging set-up and the unecessary contrivances and pantomime hoop jumping it then needs to perform in order to bring it back to it?s crowd pleasing conclusion.

In terms of acting etc. Demi Moore and Robert Redford are nicely cast in their roles and do the best they can with a progressively poor script - they don?t giggle anyway when they?re asked to jump through some of the ludicrous hoops the plot presents for them. Harrelson on the other hand is an actor I?m no real fan of, he can perform certain roles but this isn?t one of them as he struggles somewhat to convey the kind complexity of emotions his character ought to be displaying and the rest are literally ?the rest?, nothing to speak of. Indec
ent Proposal had it?s day, it posed it?s questions and was talked about for a little bit at dinner parties and general social gatherings for a while afterwards when some fool always had to ask the ?What would you do if....?? question, but now all that has past it?s just a rather clumsy movie which tries to be an intelligent romance and fails.

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