Indecent Proposal

 

I watched this old movie named “Indecent Proposal” (1993). I had come across it a couple of times on Netflix but did not open it so far. After watching it, I liked it.

The centerpiece of this movie or its plot is a couple who had married young and are currently in a big financial crisis during recession and about to lose their house. An older billionaire spots the cheerful young wife and likes her. He proposes to the couple that he would give them 1 million dollars for the lady to spend “one night” with him. The couple decline the offer and move away. Later, they ponder over the offer since it would solve their financial crisis forever. The wife says that if husband agrees, she is ok to accept the offer. They vow not to talk about the episode ever in life. The wife goes, comes back, the couple gets money, they move on, but then the billionaire keeps chasing the lady and in the meanwhile the husband starts suspecting her; their relationship sours, they move separate and the woman goes back to the billionaire. The man is broken at first, and then picks himself up and survives. Then the lady asks for divorce, so the husband signs the papers in her presence after making an emotional “film like” appeal to her that he “still loves her”. The billionaire notices that the lady still had affection for her husband, and hence leaves her. She goes back to her husband and story ends.

Now, since I am married, I think I am qualified to make a few comments on where they made mistakes or what went wrong.

For the billionaire, it was ok to fall in love with her, or the idea of her, but it was not ok to make such kind of “indecent proposal”. If he was looking for a wife who was unspoiled by money and glamor, he could have found such a woman who was not yet married. It was not necessary to chase a married woman. Now, suppose we give him a benefit of doubt, saying that love cannot be “planned”, while practically we see people planning everything, and suppose he truly fell in love with her at first sight due to her innocence, he should have backed off after coming to know that she was happily married. Or, he had the chance to make friends with the couple, in that platonic relationship, he could have enjoyed her friendship without doing anything wrong. Plus, it was very wrong for him to use his wealth as a tool to torture the lady, by buying her house or interrupting her at her workplace. He was definitely a mean guy, even though he pretended that he was not so.

It appears strange for a moment that the wife had “volunteered” to go with the billionaire. The husband initially never took the proposal seriously, but only after she volunteered, he gave consent. Does that make her a bad wife? I think she made that proposal because she felt “ownership” of herself and her body, and it was like the feminist war-cry “my body, my choice”. It would have been very wrong for the husband to propose it, and she would have hated him forever due to it, but in that sense, it was logical that she made that proposal. And her proposal to accept the offer of the billionaire was wrong. What she agreed to do was still “cheating” on her marriage. It was surely going to be humiliating for the husband, no matter what he said at that time. As a bottom line, it was okay for her to divorce her husband, but not ok to go with another man while she was married.

Now, the husband was of course stupid to agree to her plan of accepting the billionaire’s offer. As expected, he soon repented and ran to stop her, but it was too late.

The tricky moment came when the billionaire declared that he won’t force himself upon her and would do only what she agrees. At that moment, the lady should have stopped him and not allowed to touch her. She already had backing of a signed agreement which said she would get the money no matter what. But she thought that since the billionaire had paid money, he must get its price. It was like offering ourselves to a lion, just because the lion has been running for 10 kilometers to get to reach us. She was a lamb who showed mercy at the lion who was trying to eat her. It looks foolish, but I guess it happens with emotional people.

Later in the movie, many wrong things happened. The husband should never have insisted to know “what happened”, because it was impossible for him to tolerate her after knowing the details. The lady should also not have told him details, no matter how much he asked. The lady should not have gone to the billionaire, changing her hatred into liking just because she saw he was trying too hard to get her. She should have taken help from the Police since he was stalking her and also harassing her. It could be seen that she did not try to resist him enough. But then, it was just a movie story.

Now, the billionaire should also not have tried to marry her because what if she later repented her decision! It was easy for her to start liking him, because he did not have much to dislike except for his age, but what if she later changed her mind? But since he was a billionaire, he had the privilege to take chances.

And it was also not okay for the husband to try to stop the wife from marrying the billionaire and to get her back. She had seen the life of luxury once, she had liked the billionaire once, and what if even after returning, she keeps a double mind about if she did right or wrong by returning? I mean, it is difficult to trust a disloyal person and by going with the billionaire, she had shown her disloyalty once. It was risky to trust her again, but then perhaps the husband was driven by his ‘male ego’ in his attempt to get her back. 

All said and done, it was a very interesting plot and movie indeed.

- Rahul Tiwary