Indecent Proposal
幸福の条件
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A billionaire offers a couple a million dollars for one night with the wife; the dinner-party question of 1993.
David and Diana Murphy, sweethearts since high school, have staked everything on the house David, an architect, has designed for them on a plot by the sea in Santa Monica. Then the recession costs Diana her sales as an estate agent and David his job. Needing fifty thousand dollars to keep the land from being repossessed, they take their last savings to Las Vegas.
David wins at craps, and Diana tells him she loves him regardless of the money; the next day they lose it all at roulette. John Gage, a billionaire who has noticed Diana, asks her to join him at the table for luck, and her roll wins his million-dollar bet. He pays for their stay, gives them a lavish suite and buys Diana a dress she admired, and after a pleasant evening he makes his offer: a million dollars for one night with her. David refuses outright.
Diana talks him round, and David's lawyer, Jeremy, draws up a contract. At the last moment David changes his mind and runs to stop them, but Gage's helicopter has already lifted off. On his yacht Gage offers Diana a coin toss: if he loses, the deal is off. He wins, and she spends the night with him.
They agree to forget it, but the bank has already sold their land, and the buyer turns out to be Gage. David's jealousy eats at the marriage; they separate, and Diana leaves him the million. Gage courts her again, and in time a romance begins. David drinks and falls apart, then pulls himself together and finds work teaching, and Diana files for divorce. At a charity auction at the zoo, where she is with Gage, David bids the whole million, makes his peace with her and signs the papers.
Gage sees that Diana will never love him as she loves David, and lets her go with a lie: she is only the latest member of his 'million-dollar club'. She sees through it and thanks him, and as they part he gives her his lucky coin, which turns out to have heads on both sides. Diana goes to the pier where David proposed to her seven years earlier. He is there, and they take each other's hands.
Starring
Robert Redfordas John Gage
A billionaire who notices Diana in a Las Vegas casino and offers the couple a million dollars for one night with her.
John Gage’s story
John Gage sees Diana in a boutique and offers to buy her the dress she is admiring; she refuses. The next day he borrows her for luck at the tables, wins a million dollars on her roll, and names his price for a night with her. On his yacht he offers her a coin toss to call it off, and wins. He buys the land the couple have lost, and courts Diana at work until she stops resisting. At a zoo auction he watches David bid the whole million to speak to her, and sees how she looks at her husband. Driving home, he tells her she is only the latest member of his million-dollar club. She sees through the lie and thanks him, and as they part he gives her his lucky coin: it has heads on both sides.
Demi Mooreas Diana Murphy
An estate agent married to her high-school sweetheart, who accepts Gage's offer to save the home they are building.
Diana Murphy’s story
Diana married her high-school sweetheart, David; she sells houses while he designs the one they are building. When the recession threatens it, they go to Las Vegas. In a boutique a stranger offers to buy her the dress she is admiring, and she says she is not for sale. He is John Gage, and after her roll wins his million-dollar bet, he offers a million dollars for a night with her. It is Diana who talks David into it. On Gage's yacht, the coin toss that could have cancelled the deal goes his way. At home, with the land sold to Gage and David consumed by jealousy, they separate; she leaves him the money and lets Gage court her. Gage lets her go with a lie she sees through, and at the pier where David proposed, she finds him.
Woody Harrelsonas David Murphy
Diana's husband, an out-of-work architect whose jealousy after the deal nearly destroys their marriage.
David Murphy’s story
David has loved Diana since high school. When the recession costs him his job and threatens the house he designed for them, he borrows five thousand dollars from his father and heads for Las Vegas. He wins at craps, loses it all at roulette, and flatly refuses Gage's offer of a million dollars for a night with Diana. She talks him round; at the last moment he runs to stop them, too late. At home the land has been sold, to Gage, and jealousy takes him over: they separate, and he drinks until he hits bottom. Then he pulls himself together and starts teaching architecture. At a charity auction where Diana is with Gage, he bids the whole million, tells her what he feels and signs the divorce papers. At the pier where he proposed, she finds him.
Oliver Plattas Jeremy Green
A lawyer and friend of the couple, who draws up the contract for the night.
Why it matters
Indecent Proposal turns a marriage into a price and asks whether it can survive being paid. The question at its centre is blunt, whether a night with a stranger for a million dollars would be a betrayal or a bargain, but what follows is subtler: the deal is made with both partners' agreement, and it is jealousy, shame and silence afterwards that do the damage. Feminist critics argued that the premise promoted prostitution and treated a wife as property to be sold. Reviewers disliked it, and it won the Golden Raspberry award for worst picture, yet it took nearly 267 million dollars worldwide and was the sixth highest-grossing film of 1993. Underneath the argument it started is an older one: how much of a marriage rests on money, and what becomes of desire once it has been bought.