Review of Girlfriend Experience (2008) by Paul S — 12 May 2010

An oddly disjointed affair, as the topic suggests, jumping from place to place, backwards and forwards in time as it revisits scenes to embellish an emotion or drive home a point.

At the center of the film is Sasha Grey, an escort (read high end call girl, ala Secret Diary of A Call Girl) who has the requisite emotional detachment required of her profession until, by chance and her own mystical beliefs (some kind of numerology... it's never exactly explained, and unfortunately becomes the nexus point in the film - not a very strong motive for what follows), she finds a John she feels a connection to. This doesn't sit well with her long time boyfriend (gee, what a surprise there!), and ultimately breaks them apart - end of story (and really all you really need to know).

Everything else that happens, the despair and almost frantic attempts to regain what was lost in the market crash, is superficial, although I was somewhat amused by all the angles the charactors played, especially the "sex critic" who wanted a freeby in order to write Sasha a good review (all the while promissing her a trip to Dubai, where she would rake in the cash for sheeting shieks (nice alliteration don't you think)).

Perhaps some of this material would seem shocking - maybe in 1960, but with the aforementioned "Diary of a Call Girl" showing on Showtime, the call girl angle doesn't add anything - so you end up with a story of an emotionally stunted woman who is unable to enjoy her solid situation with her boyfriend and is willing to throw it all away on a prayer of a weekend fling. Sadly, I think that even she knew it would not end well - giving the film a certain fatalistic, almost existential view that, while marginally interesting, isn't anything revolutionary.