The Girlfriend Experience Cinema Review

After the unsatisfying The Informant Stephen Soderbergh’s finds his game with the absorbing The Girlfriend Experience.

The main character of the film is Chelsea/Christine a high class Manhattan escort girl played by Sasha Grey who previously was better known for starring in a host of hardcore sex movies. Grey’s character has a boyfriend Chris (Chris Santos) who knows about and supports her career choice. The movie shows Grey’s character at home with her boyfriend, with her various client’s, a journalist who is interested in her lifestyle and a owner of a influential website who wants to try out her services in return for a good reference and some possible future lucrative work. When Grey’s character finds herself strangely drawn to a client it causes conflict between her and Chris.

The film is set against a backdrop of the lead up to the 2008 presidential election and a gloomy US economy.

There’s a real art in making a film where nothing much really happens but can keep you captivated for the duration. What you get is few days or a snapshot of the life of an escort girl - a voyeuristic peek which taps into the current reality zeitgeist. The film is stimulating as it offers up a lot of food for thought not only in the escort/clients, escort/boyfriend dynamics but also in the timely relevancy of people being effected by recession times.

A trademark quality of Soderbergh’s is his ability to perfectly set the tone and mood of scenes. Subsequently it enhances the viewers perspective creating an intimacy and emotional response with the characters and specific situations. There is a lot to like on the production side with the use of lighting, interesting camera angles and music which interjects an occasional welcome pulse all give the film a kind of warm and inviting glow. A scene where the background soundtrack blends in with a street performer is a particularly nice flourish to watch out for.

The Girlfriend Experience is a stylistic, compelling and seductive non linear narrative.

The film is out on December 4.