VOD Review: The Girlfriend Experience

By Stacey Harrison

The thrust of Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience is summed up in an exchange between high-priced call girl Chelsea and a reporter interested in her life. He is fascinated by how her clients view her, and how she views them. Do they just want the carnal pleasures, or do they want something deeper? Do they want to know the real you, he asks? If they did, Chelsea says, they wouldn’t be paying me.

Shot in 16 days and using mostly nonprofessional actors, Soderbergh is returning to the micro-size project he seemingly needs to do once in awhile to purge that big-budget taste out of his mouth from all those Ocean’s Eleven movies. His last such attempt, 2005’s Bubble, examined a trio of desperate lives toiling away at a plastic doll factory in a dying Midwestern town. Though the settings couldn’t be more different — Girlfriend takes place in the sleek hotels and bistros of Manhattan — there is an interesting parallel at play. Sasha Grey, the star of The Girlfriend Experience, bears a striking resemblance to those dolls and often exudes just as much personality.

That is not a slam against Grey, who is making a much-ballyhooed transition from porno movies to mainstream cinema. She’s definitely not a polished actress, despite claims that she’s taken acting lessons for several years, and likes to drop names like Godard and Cassavetes in interviews. But she does well in portraying the detachment Chelsea needs to practice in order to do her job. She’s strongest in the scenes with her clients, where she gives them what they want, but keeps her distance. These encounters are almost always shot at a medium distance, with no cutaways, in order to instill a sense of voyeurism.

Her profession aside, Chelsea — whose actual name we learn is Christine — is in a committed relationship with Chris. He’s a personal trainer, and they live together in a comfortable New York apartment. They’re both aspiring entrepreneurs who depend on their physical beauty to ply their trades. But times are tough, as references to the fracturing economy, the government bailout and the 2008 presidential election pepper much of the dialogue. Both are forced to break their personal standards in order to stay afloat.

Soderbergh is wise to play with the timeline of the film, shifting the chronology of events to the point where it feels like an editor’s jam session. There’s not much in the way of plot going on, so this helpful maneuvering adds a bit of drama where it is sorely needed. Soderbergh is obviously more interested in behavior here, and with playing out the idea of love and beauty being sold as commodities. Casting is very important, even though it’s hard to say any of it goes beyond a stunt. Grey, of course, is a porn actress playing a prostitute; real-life reporter Mark Jacobson — who wrote a celebrated expose of a New York prostitute — plays the journalist interviewing Grey’s character; and former Premiere film critic Glenn Kenny shows up as a reviewer of a different sort, one who promises to sing the praises of Chelsea in his online forum, The Erotic Connoisseur. Many of the characters also share the same first or last names as the actors playing them. Your mind blown yet?

There’s a lot more that’s interesting about The Girlfriend Experience than there is onscreen, but Soderbergh’s little experiment is a qualified success. It’s too early to tell if Grey has a future as a clothed actress, but he does get one good crying scene out of her, and one surprisingly effective moment when she’s bothered by seeing a regular client with one of her competitors. Not bad for a lark.

 

THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE: *** out of ****

Starring: Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, Mark Jacobson; Directed by Steven Soderbergh; Rated R for sexual content, nudity and language; Runtime: 78 minutes; Available on VOD; Title may not be available on all VOD systems, so check your cable VOD lineup for further details. Also playing on HDNet Movies, and in theaters beginning May 22.

 

Photo: Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures