Review of Girlfriend Experience (2008) by Lee O — 25 Aug 2009

This movie may have a star in Sasha Grey, one of today's biggest porn stars, but don't expect a plethora of hyper-sexual set pieces. Instead, in this all digitally shot feature from maverick director Steven Soderbergh, Grey portrays a call-girl of a different kind: one who gives a man the experience of intimacy.

Grey's call-girl, known as Chelsea,l charges 2,000 dollars a night and makes her living like a soulless Hollywood player, while having a relationship with her live-in boyfriend (Chrsi Santos). The time is just a few months before the election of Barack Obama and the economy is in free-fall. Life seems pretty stable for Chelsea, as she goes about her job and whisks away clients who fall for her (one of which played by real-life film critic Glenn Kenny who is a hoot). But then Chelsea falls for a client, a big no-no in her business.

Grey is ok, but its obvious this Adult Video News Award winner can't act very much, and the script, from Brian Koppelman and David Levien, collaborators with Soderbergh on Ocean's Thirteen, strains to find credible emotion.

The Girlfriend Experience still works as cinematic provocation, however, in its own strange way. It's timely, no doubt, and a bit risky, and not everything pays off, but it's quite a nice way to see an uncompromisable director at work, doing it his way.