Barnes & Noble

This provocative, high-concept drama, which generated countless newspaper and magazine stories and many hours of broadcast commentary when it hit theater screens in 1993, was saved from terminal tawdriness by the thoughtful, measured performances of its three stars. The movie’s simple premise still seems titillating: A destitute married couple (Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore) are offered a million dollars by a wealthy businessman (Robert Redford), on the condition that the wife sleep with him for one evening. With no better options available, the couple agree -- not realizing that the illicit assignation will plunge them into an abyss of guilt, jealousy, and resentment. Essentially just a glossy melodrama, Indecent Proposal doesn’t linger on the overtly sensational; director Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction) suggests more than he shows. But the questions he raises, and the emotions he stirs, enable this compelling film to get under a viewer’s skin like few others. Lyne, whose fondness for subversively erotic subjects is well known, explains and justifies his thematic preoccupation in a new commentary for the DVD release. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Adrian Lyne buffs the premise of Honeymoon in Vegas to a fine gloss in this yuppie melodrama that poses the conundrum of whether the loving husband of an equally loving wife will accept $1 million to allow his wife to spend one night with a billionaire who looks like Robert Redford. All the cynics please take a number and form a line at the right. Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson play Diana and David Murphy, high-school sweethearts who marry and who are doing very well -- Diana is a successful real-estate agent, and David is an idealistic architect who has built a dream house by the ocean -- until the recession hits. Suddenly, David loses his job, and they can't make the mortgage payments. Dead broke, they borrow $5000 from David's father and head to Las Vegas to try to win money to pay the mortgage on their house. At first, they get $25,000 ahead -- but inevitably the house always wins, and they end up losing it all. While Diana is in the fancy casino boutique trying to lift some candy, she is spotted by billionaire John Gage (Robert Redford), who is immediately attracted to her. John invites Diana and David to an opulent party, and it is there that John offers David $1 million for a night with his wife. David is wracked by this moral dilemma, but Diana finally makes the decision on her own, with ensuing consequences for their ideal marriage and their bank account. Paul Brenner

Chicago Sun-Times

I mentioned Pretty Woman earlier. I could also have mentioned The Crying Game. What those movies and Indecent Proposal all do brilliantly is allow the audience to be voyeurs while acceptable people do unacceptable things. Roger Ebert

Product Details

• UPC: 097361432045
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Editions: Subtitled, Dubbed
• Time: 1:56:00
• Sales Rank: 20,160

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