“The Girlfriend Experience” Is Amazing

July 29th, 2009 by cbwilkins | Posted in Picture blog, Video blog |

I have to admit, I thought this movie was going to be awful. It’s directed by Steven Soderbergh, who has made outstanding movies like Sex, Lies, And Videotape, Ocean’s Eleven, and Traffic, but has also made some real duds, like the other Ocean’s Eleven movies, Solaris, and Out Of Sight. And, it stars real life porn star Sasha Grey. (I’m not going to put a link or anything, but suffice to say, she is a dirty, filthy girl. Google it.) Porno films aren’t exactly known for their acting. Add in that the film was shot in only 14 days, and there were some reasons for me to have low expectations.

But, before even watching the movie, I was pretty impressed with the poster, which is just damn cool:

The movie follows Christine/Chelsea, a high class call girl, or hooker as most of us call them, who offers her clients “the girlfriend experience”, where rather than a transactional sexual experience, they are able to have a nice date with her, including sex of course. It also follows her long term, live-in boyfriend Chris, played by Chis Santos, who, like Grey, is new to acting.

After watching the movie, the only fault I can really find is that I didn’t care for the out of focus motif that Soderbergh was going for; it’s just not my thing. That being said, the movie is gorgeous and you get the sense that half of your perception about the story is from the visual aspect. Granted, Grey is not a great actor, she might not even be good, but she’s fairly perfect in this role. Personally I found Santos as the boyfriend very annoying, his voice was high pitched and he just looked fake, but I think that was the point they were getting at. At no point in the movie do any of the lines sound fluid or polished, but the fact that it goes for everyone creates a feeling of reality that makes it acceptable. It’s not the same as having one person who can’t act surrounded by a bunch who can.

In addition to saying a lot of somewhat profound things about the hollowness of transactional intimacy, they’re also able to draw a number of comparison between Christine’s supposedly demeaning profession as a call girl and Chris’ respectable one as a personal trainer. These aren’t comparisons you’d probably make on your own, but showing the two side by side makes you think. It’s interesting that the movie doesn’t even note that both of these professions are entirely limited by age, that in a short amount of time neither of these two will be young enough to have these jobs, but that’s part of why it’s so good, it allows you to fill in the gaps.

Above all the other small joys of the movie is the surprising fact that it’s incredibly funny. And the humor is natural and ironic, in a way that makes it more pleasing that blatant comedy, if only for the petty fact that you feel good about laughing at it because somebody else probably didn’t get it. The end scene was by far the funniest and made for a shockingly appropriate finish.

This is a link to a five minute clip that’s something of an extended trailer:

It is a little long, but it gives a great idea of what the movie is about. Do yourself a favor, go watch The Girlfriend Experience.