Release Date – 5-22-09 (limited)
Chelsea is a high class escort working in Manhattan. She gets paid the big bucks for not only having sex with the men that hire her but also doing day to day activities like shopping, going out to eat, and just listening to the problems in their life, mainly about the economy since this takes place in late 2008 before the Presidential Election. She gives the girlfriend experience that satisfies these lonely rich men a little more than just your average prostitute. Chelsea is also a businesswoman and is trying to expand her business by making various contacts in the industry. She has to manage her clients and her personal life, specifically her boyfriend who seems fine with her line of work as long as she keeps it professional. The movie really bored me and never had that moment that caught my interest so I would care what happened to this chick. I struggled to find something to grab on to in order to get through it.
The movie is directed by Steven Soderbergh who brought us the Ocean’s Trilogy, Traffic, and most recently Che. The Girlfriend Experience is oddly put together. It seems almost documentary-like. The bulk of the movie is Chelsea out to eat or just sitting and chatting with another character. Its just one-on-one interactions throughout the entire film, which is less than 90 minutes. It felt like an episode of The Hills but with less annoying characters. I just never really cared what this girl was doing. Real life porn star Sasha Grey played Chelsea. She’s not the typical big-boobed, whore-ish porn star though. She is more like the girl next door which made her great for the role. She did a good job too. Her acting was top notch and I wasn’t really expecting much from her. She didn’t have a lot of scenes where she needed to go above and beyond because she was playing a cold, unfeeling character that just plays the part her client wants. I don’t know what the future holds for her in acting. I would assume she’ll get a few more films under her belt. The only other lead actor in the film would have to be the boyfriend Chris, played by Chris Santos. He tries expanding his personal training business but we never really get any conclusion with his story. It felt like his scenes were thrown in just to fill time with something other than restaurant and bedroom scenes. I didn’t care about him as a character at all.
Like I said, the movie is slow and boring. The interesting scenes involved her interactions with her boyfriend because Sasha had to show her acting chops a bit. Seriously how can you let your girlfriend go bang different guys every night and not end up fighting with her about it once in a while. Other than that there was no comedy, no thrills, no excitement, and even very little drama. It just was an uninteresting movie. Steven Soderbergh purposely tried to make something different than he usually does. He went from the 4 hour epic Che which was a character driven war movie, and now the 80 minute artsy, dialogue-heavy drama The Girlfriend Experience. And although its about a prostitute, it’s not a sexed up movie. There is only a few seconds of nudity which will probably annoy some people. But in conclusion, I just couldn’t get into it.
IMDB – 6.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 67%
Movie Wiseguys – 5/10
