If ever a song came to mind that a suited a film so aptly, it would be The Beatles "Money Can't Buy Me Love". This Adrian Lyne directed/Sherry Lansing adapted freely from the John Engelhard novel vacillates from insipid melodrama to thriller to moralistic rhetoric and so on.The film starts with a silly guffaw and end with a tearful,hand-holding whimper that suggests of LOVE STORY'S Ali McGraw and Ryan O'Neill stating "Love means never having to say you're sorry."

The idea that comes from Englehard's novel is indeed novel:Would you be willing to, for one evening, "sell yourself" for a million dollars and be able to wipe your mind of the deed the morning after? In this case, the decision involves a couple (Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore),married and very much in love, who are deeply in debt,who are offered the "way out" by agreeing mutually to have her spend one night with the rich John Gage (Robert Redford). The moral and psychological grounds that the novel and film tread are interesting ones that do cause honest pause for reflection for even the most sanctimonious of people.The questions are begged,"Can the money be taken,can you feel good about it, and can you go on unchanged?".These are all really great and compelling questions and this is the foundation upon which this film is built.The problem though is that the film never truly commits itself totally to these questions and the destructive results that follow.The film plods terribly for the first hour only to reach some measure of tension and then release with a sigh that leaves for total dissatisfaction with the entire project.

Lyne and Lansing brought to the screen FATAL ATTRACTION that nearly had everyone checking their elevators and stove-tops! This film approaches none of the drama and tension that FATAL ATTRACTION had.Still, the interesting concepts are there, but the credit for that must go to the novelist who first penned the idea.Lyne does little to nothing with it.The acting is pretty stiff and the dialogue is full of so many cliche lines that it becomes an exercise in triviality.The John Barry soundtrack is....well what can one say but...John Barry;slow,based on the same four chords in the exact same sequence that all his scores contain.One viewing will suffice with significant fast forwards through meaningless bedroom scenes .