This is the movie where Robert Redford offers Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore a million bucks for a chance to sleep with Moore. Harrelson and Moore have just lost their life savings in a last ditch effort to win enough money gambling in Vegas to pay for their dreamhouse.
They accept, the whole thing eats away at them, their relationship falls apart, Moore ends up with Redford, but then Harrelson and Moore are drawn back together.
It's strange – the movie focuses mostly on the aftermath of this arrangement. While it's easy for me to believe that this kind of thing would have a big and far-reaching fallout within a married couple, it's less interesting to see how Redford, as a billionaire, continues to court Moore and how Moore goes along with it.
A more interesting film would zero in on the night in question, I think. Maybe even in an isolated environment. For some reason I got the idea in my head a long time ago that this movie took place on a cruise ship, so all 3 of our principals are stuck together, Redford makes his offer, gets a night with Moore, and meanwhile Harrelson is stuck there like a dummy on the same ship, unable to escape. Of course, that's not what happens at all, but I kind of wish it did.
Also, Redford basically turns out to be an okay person, I guess, as far as these things go, and it might have been more interesting to have him turn out to be a total creep. Or have Harrelson turn out to be a total creep. Or Moore. Instead, none of them are. It's hard to find drama among 3 pretty easy-going people.
We kind of have the same problem here as we had with NINE ½ WEEKS – we've got kind of a depraved, kinky, thrilling story but it's told with an attempt to appeal to the middle of the road as much as possible. NINE ½ WEEKS takes a few more risks, in this respect, but they're both afraid to go all out when it comes to following their own premises.
Anyway, it's kind of a bummer way to end ROMANCEFEST 2017, but there you have it.
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