2009’s “The Girlfriend Experience”, directed by Steven
Soderbergh.
Starring Sasha Grey and Chris Santos.
What is it about?
“GE” is a simple story about a Call girl/Escort who charges
her Manhattan clients $2000 an hour for her services. Obviously she can sleep with them, but she will also go out with them, attend events, and even just
listen. She calls it, “The Girlfriend
Experience.” Grey later explains the target audience for her services: nobody
wants you to be yourself. If they did, they wouldn’t be paying you- they want
you to be who they think you are.
With that ideology in tow, we watch Grey glide through Manhattan, from client to client, and occasionally switch gears to see how her boyfriend (Santos), is making out with his respective business as a personal trainer. He seems okay with the fact that she is an escort, and likely makes 10 times more an hour than he does, as he struggles to get to where he needs to go with his business.
With that ideology in tow, we watch Grey glide through Manhattan, from client to client, and occasionally switch gears to see how her boyfriend (Santos), is making out with his respective business as a personal trainer. He seems okay with the fact that she is an escort, and likely makes 10 times more an hour than he does, as he struggles to get to where he needs to go with his business.
Why is it worth seeing?
Grey, an adult film star (at the time), tries to experiment with making mainstream films (modest ones: with it’s under $2 million budget, “GE” is not exactly a summer blockbuster). The results are mixed. Grey seems to be a chameleon who is good at making her character’s clients feel that she is a blank slate ready for assimilation of their various needs, but she also can have a very flat effect and be of one note (I recall her struggles in 2012’s, “Would You Rather?”).Her character enjoys living the Madison Avenue lifestyle, but we don’t really get to know her- which is a challenge considering the movie has so few characters to focus on. While at times Grey’s character shows herself as having plenty of street smarts, displaying proper boundaries with clients and creeps who have plans for them to get rich together if she will just offer them a freebie, her character’s spontaneous decision to break a rule of hers is baffling. Santos reacts appropriately, and Grey’s character doubles down as if it had been a temporary decision to live with a boyfriend who actually cares for her anyways.
More fascinating is the climate of this particular time in
American history, the US financial meltdown of 2008. This means a large part of
the conversations had (for both characters here) are based around the financial
sector, or at least income in general. The majority of Grey’s clients offer
advice (buy gold...), and others tell her she’s figuratively screwed (the literal
also applies at times).
Soderbergh, the most prolific and versatile director (at least in the U.S.) of the 2000-2010 decade, makes more of his handheld, quick and dirty indy product here. He displays his signature experiments with time and sound (always thrilling to me), but the script may not be worthy of his talents. It feels at times like a slightly overlong television episode, rather than a feature length movie (it clocks in at 1:18 with credits). For cinematic lovers, "The Girlfriend Experience" is something to consider, but so is celibacy.
Soderbergh, the most prolific and versatile director (at least in the U.S.) of the 2000-2010 decade, makes more of his handheld, quick and dirty indy product here. He displays his signature experiments with time and sound (always thrilling to me), but the script may not be worthy of his talents. It feels at times like a slightly overlong television episode, rather than a feature length movie (it clocks in at 1:18 with credits). For cinematic lovers, "The Girlfriend Experience" is something to consider, but so is celibacy.
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