The Girlfriend Experience
The Girlfriend Experience
R | 22 May 2009 (USA)
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Chelsea is an in-demand call girl whose $2,000 an hour price tag allows her to live in New York's lap of luxury. Besides her beauty and sexual skill, Chelsea offers her clients companionship and conversation, or, as she dubs it, "the girlfriend experience." With her successful business and a devoted, live-in boyfriend, Chelsea thinks she has it made... until a new client rocks her world.

Reviews
Reptileenbu

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Catangro

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

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Ariella Broughton

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

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Ginger

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

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Ivy

The cinematography is intriguing and pleasant for most of the film and it had potential, though there are some flaws with the plot and main character.Perhaps with more character development and longer run time, Sasha Grey could have shown depth, but I found it was an unrealistic representation of high class escort work. Unlike what other reviews say, she would not need to be "less boring" in real life to make $2000/hr, although she would have limited regular clientele (i.e. probably not "the best" at what she does in the area as suggested). Some of her struggles in the film appeared unnatural and more like very mild daily struggles an escort encounters (stalkers? Taxes? Family of client? Clients pushing boundaries? Clients wanting exclusivity? "Friends" in the industry being untrustworthy? Bumping into someone and client hears your real name?).Less important but aside from this, the brand names recited were all pronounced very wrong, which appears even less likely she is actually shopping at those NY stores (kikidm - which is named after an historical figure). If you are familiar with high end lingerie boutiques + escorting you are bound to hear their proper name because you are probably going in person and paying in cash!I expected Grey to be a better fit for this role, as she had worked in the adult industry and and seems like a smart lady. It would have been nice to show some deeper client-escort conversations, or on the other end, some sort of personal emotional experience but neither occurred significantly; she must have something motivating her to continue this work? (Money is not enough after a while to do something you don't really care for, with people you don't fancy, and always interferes with a normal personal life)In summary, they should have consulted several real life escorts (not ones that rely on celebrity status for 2 hour novelty appointments either) and included one or two events that do not fall into the "ideal and unrealistic" sex work life depiction. Also - does not take much to decently pronounce french names...

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dragokin

Steven Soderbergh's docudramas are polarizing, although i have nothing against them. However, in The Girlfriend Experience it is unclear whether there is a message, criticism or was it just another artistic experiment.Sasha Grey is surprisingly good, if you bear in mind her previous experience in front of the camera, but the scenario was to weak, in my opinion. We follow Sasha Grey's character as she earns her daily bread as a high-class prostitute.It is a shady world she lives in, yet everything was filmed in such a matter-of-fact manner that i felt neither revulsion nor pity. It was unclear why should a girl such as the main protagonist choose such vocation, which, according to this film, feels like just another line of work.Again, The Girlfriend Experience is almost a documentary, which eventually left me wondering why i'm watching it, at all...

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coastin_on_a_dream

I was drawn to this film because of the casting of Sasha Grey and Steven Soderbergh directing. I was actually sort of baffled by it....Steven Soderbergh directed an indie starring Sasha Grey?! What?! I just had to check it out.They had an interesting concept. Drawing parallels between politics and the world of the prostitution. This movie potentially could have been really interesting and insightful. Instead it was extremely bland, awkward, and pointless.The core of the issues I feel that the script is very, very weak. The filmmakers had a good concept and it is beautifully shot, but the script is honestly terrible. The dialogue is awkward and it has very strange pacing. There is no character development at all and none of the characters are written to make a lasting impression. All of them are boring. Sasha Grey's character, Chelsea, is poorly written, which is a shame considering she is the main character. Chelsea doesn't seem to have any motivation. There is no explanation for any of her actions that are hurting the people around her.The next big issue is the acting. I mean, with a script with such awkward dialogue and zero character development, it would be hard for ANY actor to put on a good performance. There wasn't much to work with. However, one can tell when an actor is actually trying. Sasha Grey's acting is honestly horrifying. Ms. Grey looked bored the entire movie. She delivered her dialogue in a very wooden manner. She is very robotic and awkward. It was as if she didn't even try. Even in the more dramatic scenes, her voice stayed the same, as if she was just reading her lines off the script. If she is trying to pursue acting after this movie, I would highly suggest that she get an acting coach or take some lessons, because she has some major work to do. As a matter of fact, I would advise her to not even try because she is just atrocious. When she says her dialogue, there is no feeling behind it. Sure, the script was bad, but it's pretty obvious that even with the greatest script in the world, Ms. Grey would still be awful. She looks like a movie star, she really does. She is beautiful. However, she comes across as very emotionally vacant when she is "acting" and she has no charisma or charm.Her costar, Chris Santos, who plays her boyfriend, never had a chance. He probably is a good actor, and I could tell he really tried to put on a good performance. But it's a lost cause because of the terrible script and a terrible costar.There isn't much a plot and the story went nowhere. No explanations to anything. It was overall quite a boring movie. It could have been good with a better script and a better actress to play Chelsea other than Sasha Grey, but it totally missed the mark.It's not worth seeing. I was drawn in because such a high profile director (Soderbergh) was directing Sasha Grey in what looked like an indie drama about prostitution. However, it's just an indie snoozefest and the casting of Sasha Grey is just a gimmick. Sasha Grey just can't act, plain and simple.2/10 only because it is beautifully shot and has good cinematography. Other than that it was a waste of time.

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swooned

Why is it that with all these reviews, only tieman64 and his review 'Eyes Wide Shut ' on 13 June 2009 is the only guy to mention the hug Sasha gives the big fat guy in the end? How did all of you miss the last thing the interviewee asks is: what kind of guy would she give her heart to? It was this last guy that she hugged like a buddy. She sad: "Come here." like a friend.Why are so many of you looking for a soft-core porn flick? Would any graphic sex change the message of the film? He left it out to stop *$%#ers like you getting it for the wrong reason.It does show that she is lonely, that she is willing to give up any security for who she feels will be the one. OK, she blew it, but it wasn't her fault. There is no indication she is returning to her old boyfriend. He is playing the field just like the next guy. She's alone.Funnily enough, I was actually not to impressed until the last scene, when she hugged the big guy. That the dialog is improvised only shows how &^$%ed up the basic conversations are of the average American. Useless, meaningless drivel. Don't blame the director for that. It only adds to the alienation Sasha is dealing with. Anyway, tieman64. Good review, especially for mentioning the big fat Jewish guy at the end. Just goes to show almost the rest of you were watching the film for the wrong reason. Go get laid, and try to do it for free, OK?

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