Review of The Girlfriend Experience (2009) by Zach K — 21 May 2012

In an elite society, clients will pay almost anything for a relationship that almost resembles the real thing. Soderbergh's "The Girlfriend Experience" captures a career meshed into the facade of a genuine love life when call girl Chelsea takes on her risky, competitive lifestyle while dating a successful fitness trainer in New York City. He is fine with what she does but the more her business flourishes and her marketing on the web picks up, the more she begins to question the very thing that propels her product: her self. While her boyfriend assures her that she is the best, no one has what she has, doubts creep in and beckon her to reconsider what she's really made of. Chelsea is a commercialized object in a time where economic calamity has consumed the culture of commerce.

Throughout the movie a discussion on future president-to be Obama's stimulus program and how it would play out for the current recession. All is made out to be a whim. Even the cell phone Chelsea buys is overpriced, causing her to barter for a fairer deal. A symbolic quote given by a devout Jewish client at the end of the film is paramount to Chelsea's entire crisis of finding value in her own self, even as an item to be sold. He says, "people say you should buy diamonds but they really don't have a resale value.".