The Girlfriend Experience (C or 2/4 stars)
I wouldn't want to experience 'The Girlfriend Experience' (directed by Steven Soderbergh) again unless I needed a surefire way to fall asleep. A drama set in the tumultuous days leading up to the '08 Presidential election, the film centers on a high-end Manhattan call girl (or escort) who must juggle her boyfriend, a plethora of wealthy clients, & her promiscuous job. Chelsea (Sasha Grey, real life porn star) is our aforementioned escort; offering her own 'girlfriend experience' to a host of men who want her around. And they'll have to pay her lofty fee of $2,000/hour. When I say that her clients want her around, that doesn't necessarily mean for sex. In fact, most just want someone to be with, to have dinner with, to catch a movie with, to look at, to listen to, to be heard, to kiss, to hold, to shoot the breeze with, and maybe, if in the mood, have sex with. Chelsea provides this. And she is a slightly different Chelsea with each man she escorts.
Some of her clients give her advice on how to invest $$ in these hard times (just before the stock market crash). Some urge her to vote for Obama, some for McCain. Each guy shallowly thinks he could be her numero uno client, when really, she's just doing her job; spending time with them, empowering them, & acting like she cares (when she really doesn't). Hell, they'd rather talk $$ than have sex because it is $$ that dominates their lives (trading it, saving it for their children's college fund, spending it on their wives, hoping they don't go bankrupt, etc.). During downtime, she lives with a boyfriend named Chris (Chris Santos), who makes a not-so-good living as a personal trainer. He is initially supportive of Chelsea's lucrative 'career'. But when she takes things a tad too far with one particular client, he feels betrayed. And the complexity of their relationship, his feelings, her confused emotions, & her career take on a different dimension.
This all sounds like the movie would be fascinating, right? Well, the premise is. The execution, not so much. It is a cold movie, that is its intent. Sex, love, friendship ... it's all a commodity to Chelsea. We don't know the real Chelsea, and I don't think she really knows who she is, either. Having to weave in & out of so many 'relationships' with such different men, she's bound to get lost within herself. It doesn't seem to bother her because it's all about the $$. But as mentioned, by the end of this 74 minute film, we see that she actually does have a heart ... and it hurts. She's not made of stone. And her large sunglasses can't always hide the pain in her eyes. Sasha Grey appears to be a capable actress (for a porn star), but she didn't bowl me over.
I wanted to like 'The Girlfriend Experience' so much. But in the end, I found it more pretentious than gratifying, more boring than interesting, & too self-congratulatory in its current political references. I was initially intrigued by Chelsea's lifestyle. Who wouldn't be? We are voyeuristic by nature. And I was anxious to see what it's like in the exotic day-to-day activities of an escort. But I wasn't invested in Chelsea. She's a tad too vapid/dull. The movie is much more a character study than it is about plot. But there's little to the character of Chelsea, and NO plot. So why be invested in the movie? Soderbergh's non-linear approach to the timelines within the film is intriguing (though it provides little import with respect to the story). And I commend his unsentimental depiction of this type of lifestyle. But it was just too distancing for me in end. It rarely 'engaged' me. And it's not the type of film one would necessarily want to re-visit, either.
Some of her clients give her advice on how to invest $$ in these hard times (just before the stock market crash). Some urge her to vote for Obama, some for McCain. Each guy shallowly thinks he could be her numero uno client, when really, she's just doing her job; spending time with them, empowering them, & acting like she cares (when she really doesn't). Hell, they'd rather talk $$ than have sex because it is $$ that dominates their lives (trading it, saving it for their children's college fund, spending it on their wives, hoping they don't go bankrupt, etc.). During downtime, she lives with a boyfriend named Chris (Chris Santos), who makes a not-so-good living as a personal trainer. He is initially supportive of Chelsea's lucrative 'career'. But when she takes things a tad too far with one particular client, he feels betrayed. And the complexity of their relationship, his feelings, her confused emotions, & her career take on a different dimension.
This all sounds like the movie would be fascinating, right? Well, the premise is. The execution, not so much. It is a cold movie, that is its intent. Sex, love, friendship ... it's all a commodity to Chelsea. We don't know the real Chelsea, and I don't think she really knows who she is, either. Having to weave in & out of so many 'relationships' with such different men, she's bound to get lost within herself. It doesn't seem to bother her because it's all about the $$. But as mentioned, by the end of this 74 minute film, we see that she actually does have a heart ... and it hurts. She's not made of stone. And her large sunglasses can't always hide the pain in her eyes. Sasha Grey appears to be a capable actress (for a porn star), but she didn't bowl me over.
I wanted to like 'The Girlfriend Experience' so much. But in the end, I found it more pretentious than gratifying, more boring than interesting, & too self-congratulatory in its current political references. I was initially intrigued by Chelsea's lifestyle. Who wouldn't be? We are voyeuristic by nature. And I was anxious to see what it's like in the exotic day-to-day activities of an escort. But I wasn't invested in Chelsea. She's a tad too vapid/dull. The movie is much more a character study than it is about plot. But there's little to the character of Chelsea, and NO plot. So why be invested in the movie? Soderbergh's non-linear approach to the timelines within the film is intriguing (though it provides little import with respect to the story). And I commend his unsentimental depiction of this type of lifestyle. But it was just too distancing for me in end. It rarely 'engaged' me. And it's not the type of film one would necessarily want to re-visit, either.