Review: ‘The Girlfriend Experience’

Steven Soderbergh is known for directing studio blockbusters such as OCEANS 11, OUT OF SIGHT and ERIN BROKOVICH but he also likes to make more personal independent films every now and then (KAFKA, BUBBLE, FULL FRONTAL). Soderbergh continues this eclectic streak by following up his four hour epic CHE with the no-budget digitally shot THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, an improvisational, impressionistic profile of a high-priced NYC prostitute coping with personal problems and the current economic recession.

THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE follows high-priced “escort� Chelsea (adult film star Sasha Grey) and her devoted personal trainer boyfriend Chris (Chris Santos) over several (chronologically jumbled) days in the in the Fall of 2008 (there is a LOT of talk about the then-upcoming presidential election). Chelsea services (for $2,000 an hour) a diverse list of powerful and cultured men but she is conflicted between her comfortable relationship with Chris, and her desire to find something more fulfilling and exciting. Guided by her obsession with personality tests and birth charts, Chelsea dreams of opening a boutique. She asks her clients for advice about recession-proof investments, recognizing that she herself is no less a product than the financial assets they are discussing on the phone before and after sex . Chris meanwhile has ambitions of his own and is determined get ahead any way possible. He hawks a line of exercise clothes to sporting goods stores and pesters his boss at the gym for a larger cut of the business he brings in. Not much else happens plotwise in THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE though a sensitive new client ultimately comes between Chelsea and Chris which leads to some domestic discontent between the couple.

THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE has received a lot of attention because of Soderbergh’s decision to cast an adult film actress in the lead role. Though a meditation on the sex business, there’s no actual sex and viewers looking for titillation will be disappointed (though Grey does one rather glorious full-frontal nude scene). The physical contact that is shown is presented as dry and mechanical and even the talk of sex is sterile and presented mostly in business terms. The waifish Sasha Grey is certainly gorgeous but does not look like your typical tawdry silicon-enhanced porn star (though her painted-on eyebrows did sorta creep me out) and I was surprised at the unmannered and comfortable way she carried her self in her first non-porn outing. Chelsea is emotionally detached by design for much of the film but when her veneer finally cracks near the end I was impressed by Grey’s full, rounded performance.

Soderbergh switches artfully between mundane day-in-the-life scenes (shopping, lunch with a friend) and some real drama. My favorite scene was Chelsea’s uncomfortable encounter with the Erotic Connoisseur, a uber-sleazy internet sex critic (an icky Glenn Kenny) who attempts to impress her with promises of a sex excursion to Dubai (where men “will pay $10,000 to shake your handâ€�) then cruelly trashes her online, the narration of his review accompanied by a street musician singing “Everyone’s a Critic.” In another interesting device, Soderbergh occasionally cuts to an assemblage of financial managers who are treating Chris to an exclusive weekend in Vegas. These nervous men commiserate about the upcoming election and it’s imminent effect on the economy and their own portfolios. THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE shows us a cold world in which everything is a commodity. Chelsea promotes herself on her website and spends more talking (in voiceover) about her clothing designers than anything else in her life (she lists so many upscale brand names I half expected her to whip out an axe a la AMERICAN PSYCHO) Shot in 16 days, Soderbergh photographed and edited THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE himself and he makes the film’s hurried look work in it’s favor. It’s hardly groundbreaking and at a slight 75 minutes, barely has time to make an impression but it’s so cool to watch a major Hollywood director make a film like this just to scratch an artistic itch (C’mon, can you see Spielberg or Ron Howard create something like this in their spare time?). Like BUBBLE, THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE will hit theatres, pay-per-view, and DVD(Ed Note: It hits DVD Sept 1st) at the same time and I highly recommend seeking it out.

‘The Girlfriend Experience’ opens today in Saint Louis at the Tivoli theatre.

[Overall: 4 out of 5 stars]