The Girlfriend Experience

We've been anticipating this Soderbergh movie since Ché, Stephen Soderbergh's first venture into the hi-tech camera Red. Here's his second, as with Ché, cast with mostly amateur actors, a mostly-improvised script, shot very quickly, and using mostly natural light. Like Godard, Soderbergh pushes the envelope of acceptability each time out.

The Girlfriend Experience opens at the AMC on June 26th, after my-pov.ca is in summer hiatus. Enjoy!

Here's J Paul Higgins' review:

***
A fascinating, occasionally infuriating, wonderfully written film. Quite short at 77 minutes, I was riveted; the somewhat abrupt ending left me wanting more. Probably not for everyone however.

The director (Steven Soderbergh) employs sometimes exasperating devices to keep the audience off balance. The chronological sequence is scrambled. The compelling sound track rarely seems appropriate to what’s on the screen, with frenetic drum music over quiet shopping scenes, bass heavy “danger” music at strangest times. (Check out the street drummer Shakerleg in the trailer!) Filmed on a portable high definition video camera, occasionally deliberately shaky, the editing between scenes is often quite abrupt.

The story centers on Chelsea, a high priced escort and her live-in boyfriend Chris, a personal trainer, both very ambitious and finding business slowing down in October 2008 as the economy falters. The story cuts back and forth between the two as they struggle with business challenges (positioning, promotion, prospective business partners, website design, media reviews). Their clients, high-powered business men, blather on about business challenges during the economic downturn, offer investment advice. Careful viewers can obtain quite a decent MBA education from this film.

Chelsea is played by Sasha Grey who, at 21, is a very successful porn star. The Girlfriend Experience is her first mainstream role. Pretty of course with a spectacular body, she doesn’t seem that attractive at first. And her professional reserve and endless business discussions hardly spice things up. But then she grabs you with her eyes, a tweak of her brow, a twist of her mouth, an artful body pose in lingerie ... Ahem. Let’s just say she is quite believable in the role. Despite her professional background, this is not at all an explicit film; there are occasional brief glimpses of nudity and frank discussion, but nothing more.

Chelsea struggles with her relationship with clients. Is it essentially mercantile? Or closer to friendship? Where are boundaries and does setting them not destroy the illusion the client is paying for? How does her Sasha Grey's relationship with clients differ from that with her boyfriend? The writers and director lay out the dilemmas clearly but with subtlety. And I, as a sometime business coach to personal trainers and alternative health practitioners, found The Girlfriend Experience to be absolutely fascinating.

j paul higgins