Redford-movie Night: “Indecent Proposal” (1993)

Have I mentioned my Columbia thesis is an homage to Robert Redford? Because of this, I’m watching all his movies and last night curled up to Indecent Proposal (1993) in which Redford plays a middle-aged California billionaire involved in a love triangle with a young married couple (played by Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson). 


Woody and Demi—he an architect with big dreams, she a real estate agent—are deep in debt and so venture to Las Vegas to solve their financial woes (because that’s where you go for a sure-fire way to make money). As Woody triumphs at the craps table, Demi wanders the chichi gift shops where Redford spots her modeling a gown she can’t afford. He creates opportunities for more encounters with Demi (he can do that—he’s a billionaire and he’s Redford) and eventually invites the couple to a soirée in his penthouse hotel suite. After the other guests have left, Redford proffers his proposal: one night with Demi for a million dollars. As Demi and Woody have blown their winnings and run out of solutions, the proposition begins to sound pretty good. What you don’t know immediately is that underlying what looks, sounds, tastes and smells like a clear-cut business transaction is Redford’s hope that Demi will come back to him even after the night is over and the money’s been deposited in the married couple’s bank account.


Indecent Proposal has been called “implausible” and “insulting.” I don’t recall my reaction when I saw the film when it was released 18 years ago. Seeing it now, I liked it more than I expected. Redford, with his good looks and easy smile, makes the movie fun to watch. At 56, he is still handsome (although for him the lens has a softer focus than it does for Demi and Woody), his character charming and flirtatious. And who among a certain generation of women would fault Demi for giving Redford a second look, no matter what the age difference or that she is happily married? Meanwhile, comparisons to Demi’s real life marriage to a man 15 years her junior are unavoidable. So much for implausible. 


As for insulting? It’s a movie. And by the way, a highly stylized and pretty one. That the director is Adrian Lyne, who also directed Flashdance, explains a lot. Demi, in her early 30s here, is stunning and voluptuous. Even Woody, also in his early 30s, has hunky moments, and their sex scenes are—something. You can’t really call them love scenes because these interludes are all about toned bodies and perfect skin. (We’re told during strange Demi voiceovers that the two are madly in love, but their sexual compatibility seems far more interesting to the cinematographer than their emotional connection.) 

Not for nothing, whoever dressed Demi for the film is a genius with a sewing machine. From the sculpted black evening gown Demi covets in the boutique—of course, RR buys it for her—to the white tea-length dress and filmy shrug she wears to a garden party, the formal costuming is runway gorgeous. I like Demi’s day outfits even more and covet her khaki vest, which doubles as a purse.

Redford and Moore in a scene from Indecent Proposal

It makes sense that Redford made this movie. He portrays his character as more sentimental than you might expect a gambling billionaire to be. Redford loves that kind of reversal in his roles. The part doesn’t push his range as an actor, but that ship sailed a long time ago. He’s a 90s version of Gatsby here, hope embodied in a well-cut suit. I suppose to some the proposition—that money can buy anything—makes for an interesting debate, but I for one am not in this for the “deep think.”   


There is one particularly strange, out-of-sync moment in the film. In a scene at Demi’s office, a receptionist is at her desk reading Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. The controversial 1991 bestseller by Susan Faludi explains a perception (hyped by the media, Faludi argues) that feminism created more problems for American women than solutions. The camera lingers too long to ensure you see the book jacket, a familiar sight in those days. It’s a real world object, a provocation (or defense?) awkwardly thrust into the alternate universe created by the film, a universe where big thoughts carry little to no weight.