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Indecent Proposal - Can Money Really Buy Love?

M. József | 05/05/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Diana and David Murphy (Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson) are a young couple in love. Heck, their relationship is so blissfully perfect, you can hardly believe it. She's a real estate agent and he's an architect. After a quick synopsis of their relationship, we're told that they tightened their collective belts to take a loan out on their home to buy a piece of ocean-front property to build their dreamhouse...which David designed of course. But then the real estate market crashes and they're precariously close to losing everything. This is where the problems with the film really start. What do the Murphy's do to get the fifty-thousand dollars they need? Borrow five-thousand from his dad and go to Vegas! It would be funny if I was kidding, but I'm not. It's there that they meet John Gage (Robert Redford) and he offers to pay them one million dollars for a night with Diana. Of course they refuse and are offended at the offer, but it gnaws at them. The story really crashes when they convince themselves that she'll do it and it won't cause any problems with their marriage. "We'll just forget it ever happened and never talk about it," she says. Hello??? I initially looked forward to this film in 1993 because I think the "Can money buy love?" question is one that can spawn a lot of interesting conversation, but unfortunately the story just keeps taking turn after turn farther away from what I could consider believable in a situation like this like David donating a million bucks at a charity to buy a hippo at the end of the film! The film is able to keep the viewer's attention until the end simply because you'll want to know what's going to happen, but there's no question a stronger script could have definitely enhanced this movie despite the generally good acting on the part of Moore, Harrelson and Redford."