The Girlfriend Experience :: movie review 2009

So I didn’t really get the dynamic of this film and had a hard time with Chelsea’s boyfriend being all right with the whole escort thing. I guess in my mind he would be more of a tattooed pimp who beat her if she didn’t come home with more cash so they could buy drugs, even if the beating were emotional not physical. But he seems to be the woman and she’s the man , bringing home the bacon while he trudges away at his mundane job as a personal trainer (ok, am I the only one who thought that this character meets all the criteria the for being gay), I don’t remember them even talking about the money and that was the point of what she was doing, right?. I did as the movie starts have a preconceived notion as to a plot that was not there at all as I found out. I was expecting to have the main role as some pour exploited girl with an evil mentor older call girl that talked her into it or the above mentioned man that needed the money for his own ends, but in this film she’s doing it  on her own to open a clothing boutique.

Sasha Gray was great as Chelsea, she has an air of being OK with the whole high class call girl thing, and I think her background served her well as a reference point to base her character on. The story to me seemed to be mixed up and the cut a-ways to guys talking about politics on an air plane was a distraction from the story. The cinematography was stunning and the scenes were well done as was the use of music to drive the pace. But the time line is fractured and a little confusing which would have served me better as a constrain narrative to deliver the plot and the conflict.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Produced by Mark Cuban, Gregory Jacobs, Todd Wagner
Written by Brian Koppelman, David Levien
Starring Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, Glenn Kenney, Peter Zizzo
Distributed by Magnolia Pictures