Indecent Proposal - Blu Ray Review

The great thing about "Indecent Proposal" is that, despite being a guilty pleasure that revels a bit in schmaltz and sentimentality, it has a classicism that makes it timeless in many respects. It is the great intermittent nature of many factors that just seems to make it work. It had a significant effect on me when I first saw it at 18 in terms of its simple style and effectiveness. I remember making my way up to the top of Las Vegas Hilton in Vegas at that time because I wanted to see that helicopter pad . It had made an impression on me. There was just a cool visceral connection.The casting beyond anything else makes it work right off the bat. They don't try to play it too cheesy which is a credit to director Adrian Lyne but the material simply keys into a certain mentality in that regard. Demi Moore is unbelievably radiant here. Lyne says in the commentary, which unfortunately is a rehash from 2003, that Moore had just been pregnant before she did the movoe, which gave her a certain feminism which he hadn't seen before when they had met for other roles. This is undeniably true. She simply gives an aura off which balances her completely between the aspects of Robert Redford and Woody Harrelson.Robert Redford and the music of John Barry add the essence that lifts the film beyond what it essentially it is. Redford is undeniably smooth but still vulnerable showing that aspect of sometimes what movie stars today lack. Clooney has it once in a while but it is not the same thing...yet. There are many moments that behold Redford but nothing as much as when he relates his monologue about the girl in the train. Lyne explains in his commentary that that situation is something that happened to him when he was in his 20s and he put it in the script. It feels very real and that is what makes the scene work. Same thing with Redford. There is an organic realness that is very hard to put your finger on.The music for me is what really sells it. John Barry might be considered a little overblown to some people but he gives the films he scores an epic quality even if they are very personal films. Look at "Somewhere In Time" and "Chaplin" for example.Then look at Harrelson and Moore. From the beginning moment where she climbs underneath him and places his hand on her breast...he takes it out, wipes his drawing and puts his hand back. Her smile in the reverse melts you because it is so disarming despite the fact that this is big budget studio picture. It is that kind of intimacy that really makes you believe the story despite any short comings of the dialogue.The commentary reflects alot of these perceptions as Lyne agrees that the movie and some of its situations come out too sentimental for his tastes at times but that it still works. It does so by transcending and reintepreting the high concept but sometimes shoddy dialogue work by the sheer vision of its director and the talents of its three lead actors. In terms of the HD transfer, the sun drenched aspects from the approach of the yacht to Redford's final exit really enrich the vision. But in other scenes, especially in the hotel rooms, the grain structure is undeniably seen. However, for its guilty greatness and all that makes it, I give "Indecent Proposal" on Blu Ray a 3.