A Reflection on "Indecent Proposal"

Over the weekend, I caught a bit of the movie "Indecent Proposal" on the Oh! network. This movie stars Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore, and Robert Redford. In case you don't remember the premise, it goes something like this: Demi and Woody are a young married couple, who are reasonably happy but are struggling financially. They go to Vegas on vacation, and somehow Demi meets Robert, who is, of course, a debonaire trillionaire, and he happens to find her insanely attractive. Robert offers Demi (and Woody, I guess--though he really doesn't have to do any work in this department since Robert isn't a swinger) $1,000,000 for one night of sweet lovemaking with her. A deal goes down and some terms are agreed to, and Demi does it. She earns the money and brings home the bacon; and the rest of the movie is all about the unraveling of relationships, venturing into new ones, and returning back to old ones. I guess it's a love story, for the most part.

I first saw this movie in the mid-1990's, in the theatres, so probably shortly after it came out. As I recall, I went to see it with a monkey-brained wrestler from Birmingham Groves High School. I think his name was Nate. He drove a blue Ford Festiva, and our dates usually followed this pattern: see movie, eat food, park car in random lot, make out. Pretty typical suburban teenage crap, I think. I remember thinking that "Indecent Proposal" was a perfect date movie, in that it really was fodder for serious conversation: "Would you ever....?" I'm not sure Nate and I had this conversation, though, because I'm pretty sure he didn't think much about anything-- ever.

So viewing parts of this movie now, in my late-20's, as a mom and wife, I found myself wanting to have this as-yet-unfulfilled conversation with someone.... and who better to have it with than you, my loyalyet reluctant-to-identify-themselves readers? Here's my Q: if you were in a reasonably happy committed relationship that fell on hard financial times, would you do as Demi did?

And here's my A: Probably not... at least not for a measly million. That amount might've been OK for the 1990's, but not these days-- why, that's barely minimum wage! I'd demand double-- no, TRIPLE-- what Robert paid Demi. (Aside to young readers, from your mother: it is illegal to have sex with someone for money. And it's a bad decision, besides, because you'll be hurting yourself and others).

The worst and most unrealistic part of "Indecent Proposal" is that in the end Demi goes back to Woody and they resume their reasonably happy pauper's life. In an alternative and more compelling ending, Demi would stay with Robert, the debonaire trillionaire, and she'd hire Woody to be her bed-in butler. She'd have the funds for something like that because of her connection to Robert; and Woody could still have a relationship with her, and she with him; and Woody would finally live a house with air-conditioning, a washer/dryer, and a dish washer.... best of all, he wouldn't have to fiddle with the AC, or do any kind of washing, because there would also be a live-in handyman, and a live-in laundress. Woody's main duty would be tending to the woman of the house. As long as Robert stayed filthy rich he'd be blind to any reality at all, and he'd continue throwing money at Demi, and everyone could live together and be reasonably happy-- and they'd have all the STUFF they could ever need or want-- helicopter, yacht, vacation houses; Aston Martins, Armanis; pet monkeys, personal shoppers and trainers; and lots and lots of $$$$$$.