Movie Review: "The Girlfriend Experience"

There are very few instances in movies where the planets are aligned properly and the perfect director and the perfect player get together and work in a way that no other possible combination would've worked.

Steven Soderbergh's "The Girlfriend Experience" is one of those instances.

First and foremost, the thing that you will probably hear about from everyone and their dog is the casting of adult film star Sasha Grey for the lead role. It was Soderbergh's decision to cast Grey for the role of a high class Manhattan call girl because of a magazine interview she had done. The way she looks at the adult film industry and her personal conduct, really everyone should check out because (while it sounds cliche to say) it is not the general outlook one has for the adult film industry. You can make an argument that Sasha Grey is way ahead of her time, not just being an adult film actress, but the general sense of being an actress and a complex/intriguing person that you can't easily meet going around the corner.

Having Grey be the high class escort, given where she has made her name gives "The Girlfriend Experience" more of a documentary feeling than a movie about the life of an escort. At times, I found myself watching a semi-biography of Sasha Grey more than watching an escort named Chelsea as she chronicles details of her clients, expanding her business while managing a comitted relationship. Grey comes off so natural because of what the film is about. Throw in Steven Soderbergh's amazing ability to just "be there" and capture the moment and you are seeing something really immersive. One particular scene that jumps out to me is when Chelsea is meeting one of her clients, like most of her clients, a man involved in finance and the timeframe of the movie is around the 2008 Presidential Election, where nerves were at an all time high because of the economy. Her client is just sitting there, talking to her and you can see the stress in his voice. The uncertainty of what is going to happen next and it has prevented him from seeing Chelsea on a more frequent basis. What struck me in the scene was that at no point do you see Chelsea's face. One of the many great things that Soderbergh is known for is amazing cinematography and in this scene, being that all you see is the back of Chelsea's head, shrouded in her raven locks, you get to focus on the client. However at the same time, even though you do not see her face at all, you can still sense how she is reacting to seeing her client, his emotions and what he is saying. You know she is listening and for that scene to come so early in the film, I knew that this movie, this director and this actress, something special was going on here.

"The Girlfriend Experience" isn't as much about the fact that an adult film star is "crossing over" to do a mainstream movie as it is an exploration into the relationships and emotions an escort invests in. Like I said, it feels more like a documentary than a movie, and you can attribute that to a natural and equally breakthrough performance by Sasha Grey.

I want to say that "The Girlfriend Experience" is a must-see for anyone, but the truth is, it is a rather tricky movie to sell to just anyone and everyone. Sure, casual minds will be curious to check out this Sasha Grey and very few would admit that they were familiar with the name, because that's just good old fashioned tounge and cheek, "hehe" admittance to identifying an adult film star. However those that watch this movie expecting an eye candy movie just under mainstream lights will get a rude awakening. "The Girlfriend Experience" is a deep movie because it's player is intelligent and not to be taken lightly. Sasha Grey has said herself that had it not been Steven Soderbergh to approach her about the movie, she would not have done it and Soderbergh would not have done it without her.

For me, I can easily say "The Girlfriend Experience" is a Top 10 movie in a still young 2009 year. Soderbergh and Grey are a perfect marriage of director and player and their efforts result in dare I say, a work of art.

NOTE: If you are curious as to how I managed to watch this movie since it hasn't been released in the theatres, Soderbergh has decided to release the movie on Amazon's Video On Demand service as well as the Microsoft XBOX Live Marketplace. So if you have access to either service, you can watch it now and avoid the theater crowd.

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