The Girlfriend Experience

[nitelite]

"Sometimes the clients think they want the real you but at the end of the day they want you to be something else."

The Girlfriend Experience stars a Porn Star and is 77 minutes of nonlinear conversation, a recipe for disaster. Yet I sat in utter fascination for that entire running time. It plays more like a documentary than it does a drama (idk what genre this falls into) as it follows a week in the life of an escort girl, Chelsea.

So much is going on in The Girlfriend Experience, yet nothing is going on. The characters are multi-layered and the dialogue is saturated with subtext. But the movie revolves around what is not being said. She dodges personal questions, smiling hesitantly when asked how much it costs to get the "real you". She puts up an impenetrable wall at her job. She nods her head, smiles, and says all the right things in conversation. She pretends to be interested as all of her rich clients tell her about their problems, which are ALWAYS financial. She converses, cuddles, and has sex when the role calls for it. She lacks personality and individuality, ordering what they order, liking the movie if they liked it. But to condemn her profession would be the worst mistake you could make when watching TGE. This is a world that represents what drives us as humans in the most ugly of ways: money, sex, and power.

"If they wanted you to be yourself, they wouldn't be paying"

One of the most interesting aspects of the film was how her job carries over into her real life, with her boyfriend. It often mirrors her clients, and in many ways looks like a "boyfriend experience". It is clear that she has to turn off and transition from these emotionally intimate experiences, and as a result has trouble ever really being in love. Her boyfriend has an almost identical job to hers. He is a personal trainer who tries to make people feel good about themselves, says all the right things, and listens to rich people spill their problems all over him.

There are portions of the film where you see what Chelsea is thinking. She exudes self-confidence and markets herself as a sophisticated escort. Yet she is self-conscious and occasionally, the disconnect she has about her job dissolves and she realizes the harsh realities of her profession. She is competitive and is willing to do anything to get an edge on her competition.

Chelsea has a relationship with a client that she evidently enjoys. Her eyes light up during their conversations. This client gives her foot rubs, and asks her about her day. The most powerful scene of The Girlfriend Experience, comes when she finally answers this question honestly.

My respect for director Steven Soderbergh has grown tenfold. The balls on this guy... His last film was a four hour foreign movie. For this film, he casts a porn star and hits a very taboo subject. Sasha Grey does well in her "first mainstream role" (mainstream my ass) and really gives a convincing performance. The character is rather flat and emotionless, but there are moments when Grey has to do geniuine acting and those are the heart and soul of the movie. In my mind, this is easily one of the best movies of 2009. I would analyze this film even more if I could, because it is impossible to fully digest it in one viewing.

I do not want to make this review sound like a recommendation. It's not. You have to be a particular kind of person with specific interests to find this film as fascinating as I did. You have to know yourself well enough to know if you would be interested in watching 77 minutes of conversation...and some may even find it frustrating that the conversations are not in order. It's a great experimental film, and is truly an arthouse movie. But if you indeed a film nerd, this is an experience you won't want to miss.

"There could be someone who just wants the real you, right?"