Review of Girlfriend Experience (2008) by Alan M — 04 Dec 2009

First thing I've noticed about this film is its simplicity, but the ideas are lucidly intertwined. The camera always follows Chelsea (Sasha Grey) revealing the expressions on her face. But most of the time, she only resembles a blank connotation of who she really is; because people pay for her to show her real self. Chelsea is an escort; she gives satisfaction only to paying customers, their money she is most interested in; leaving the plot to end that way. This one-and-a-quarter-hour film takes us to the real and exponentially progressing world of escort service, and the underground scene of genuine dramas behind these people in a synecdoche of a girl named Chelsea.

Sasha Grey is a real-life pornographic star. I've seen her in several full-length films before, and "The Girlfriend Experience" is I think her most serious one; with no sex scene at all (only nude ones), and rather informative than compelling.

"The Girlfriend Experience" (GFE) tells us the story behind the escort service business. Christine, also known as Chelsea is an escort, who by far establishes herself to becoming well-known. Her dream of becoming famous over the World Wide Web has led her to encounter scenes in her life that would emanate an upheaval of some sort. Every customer she comes across with gives her something besides money that she would later be having a hard time to think about. They would offer her lots of things in general, but was there something else to be considered?

Chelsea has a boyfriend named Chris. Chris is a part time gym instructor and a part time boyfriend to Chelsea. In the beginning of the film, he has established a good guy approach to the audience with his machismo and a soft voice that turns his personality a bit squashy.

Knowing that Chelsea is engaged in an undesirable business of selling her own flesh, Chris has nothing to say against it. Of course for a man like him, it is such a big deal but he does not say anything about it. If it is Chelsea's happiness, then so be it.

Chelsea has to make the right decisions. When a customer by a name of David, an old man who says he hasn't had an escort before has said that he would help Chelsea into becoming famous, Chelsea goes totally into the richness of David's prowess and leaves Chris in vain. By that time, we hear nothing about Chris again and Chelsea seems to be confident of what she has done. But in the end, we see Chelsea waiting for a promise broken with her dreams flying away like a disaster.

There are but a few who gives importance to things around them. And there so many who take advantage whatever things they are having, not knowing that in the end, losing them is like having a big step backward.

Chelsea's life is revealed with an interview from one of her clients. The old man tries to go into the real Chelsea and discover the existence behind her unwavering energy, fake smiles, and staunched eyes that men are all curious of. Chelsea tells the old man that for her to show her real self, people have to pay. She is not a celebrity, but for some, she is a satisfaction. She satisfies their needs sexually. She would tell him from time to time that she had a dream of becoming famous. So she went into what his other customer David said. David promises that he would write a good review about her in the web which will later increase her popularity and would make her an internet star instantly. David also advices Chelsea to make a book, for her so-called "up-scaling", it is a business essential for her to move into another level. This is what other escorts do to catch the interests of not few but many rich people.

The old client asks Chelsea if she doesn't get bored in her work. She answers back that she gets tedious, but I think the nature of her job is meant to be that way. She listens to unending stories of her customers about their failed relationships, frustrations, and business matters that she does not fully understand.

GFE is a timely effort to succumb the writers' belief about what their country is experiencing by this time. It is always about the economy. In some scenes, we can see a group of about four professionally-looking men in a plane trip talking about everything and anything. At first they were talking about the economy, how the country will pay for their debts especially in the Obama administration. It is important to highlight their conversations because they are much informative. In one of their conversations, one inquires that how would they know if an escort is really into a man who pays. That gives the attention back to Chelsea and the "interviewer".

In Gus Van Sant's 1991 "My Own Private Idaho", we experience the intensity of the creativity in his works, and the detrimental condition of the protagonist played by River Phoenix. It is a story of two escorts Mike (Phoenix) and Scott (Keeanu Reeves) who are finding ways to happiness and true success.

I recommend Jean-Luc Godard's "Vivre sa Vie" where I think exhibits Anna Karina's greatest performance. She plays the role of a prostitute and discovers herself trapped in a situation of mundane yearnings. Sasha Grey idolizes Anna Karina and she even had her screen name named after the French actress when she was starting her career in adult videos. In "The Girlfriend Experience", although she did not match Anna Karina's "Vivre sa Vie", Sasha Grey has done a job well done. The story is quite interesting since we need to follow a particular character's growth up till the end, and find or learn something out of it. Director Steven Soderbergh's tremendous task is to put this interesting plot into moving and expressive pictures which he did real well. The photography is amazingly shot in low-lighting and silhouettes of characters while they are talking. He often employs source music for scoring which is a very good idea for films; example is the gentleman playing drums in the street and the duets singing with guitar background. One of the most effective films to use that style is Jonathan Demme's "Rachel Getting Married" where Robyn Hitchcock sings his songs and the other artists in that wedding party. I even heard there a very powerful violin piece that concludes the film with so much energy.

I really don't know it that was meant to be that way, but Chelsea reminds me of Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's"; with black dress, and dark sunglasses.

GFE shows us real world characters in a real world scenario, but we all see how mysterious they are because we really don't know about what they feel. So this film conjures a common feeling of distrust, frustrations, and everyday feelings that we encounter. Chelsea may just be another escort that the internet may be offering to fulfill our Libido, but she is a real world character, and what she does, she does for survival.