William Bibbiani Reviews The Girlfriend Experience!

When people say they love Steven Soderbergh movies, they usually mean that they love Steven Soderbergh movies from 1998 to 2001. In those few years the Academy Award-winning director seemed to do no wrong, unleashing upon the world five critically acclaimed (and often financially successful) modern classics, including Out of Sight, The Limey, Erin Brockovich, Traffic and Ocean’s Eleven. These are the films that have made Soderbergh a household name, and ever since then he’s seemed uncertain what to do with his notoriety, pumping out well-meaning but usually unpopular art house “films” alongside the occasional bloated and  ill-advised Ocean’s ____ “movie,” with each “movie” seemingly made to help keep his “films” considered financially viable.

It would be nice to say that his new film The Girlfriend Experience marks a return to Soderbergh’s prolifically successful days, or at least the early, “interesting” days of King of the Hill or Schizopolis, but alas, for all of its positive qualities the ability to engage an audience isn’t one of them. Porn star Sasha Grey stars as Chelsea, a high class prostitute/escort who offers her clients the so-called “Girlfriend Experience” – instead of cold, clinical exchanges of sexual favors for money, Chelsea’s clientele pays her to simulate the act of being their girlfriend, complete with small talk, French kissing and even affection. But when she’s not pretending to be someone’s girlfriend, she actually is someone’s girlfriend. While Chelsea is out making successful middle-aged men feel better about themselves, her actual boyfriend Chris (Chris Santos, a former athletic trainer making his feature film debut as, luckily enough, an athletic trainer) pursues his dreams of financial success in an ironic attempt to become exactly the kind of person who would need his girlfriend’s services.

It’s an inherently dramatic concept that regrettably neither Steven Soderbergh nor screenwriters Brian Koppelman & David Levien (Rounders, Knockaround Guys) are interested in telling. Instead, they’d rather talk about “The Economy.” Yes, The Girlfriend Experience takes place just prior to the 2008 Presidential Election and the first half of the film contains more dialogue about people’s economic concerns than about the actual storyline, and frankly, that could have been fine. When it comes to metaphors for American capitalism you can’t do much better than prostitution, but the film doesn’t have anything to say about it. It’s still way too soon to be objective about an ongoing crisis, so instead of well-considered observations and perhaps even a pointed message or two about where we’ve been and where we’re going, we’re treated to knee-jerk reactions on the part of both the characters and the filmmakers. Like Spike Lee’s The 25th Hour, which ham handedly forced 9/11 commentary into a narrative that had precious little to do with it, Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience feels like a critically-acclaimed filmmaker’s version of a forum post that only says “FIRST!” Soderbergh, Koppelman and Levien may be the first ones to comment, but in their rush to produce one of the first feature films about a topical issue they seem to have precluded The Girlfriend Experience from demonstrating any actual insight.

Much has been made of award-winning porn star Sasha Grey’s casting in a Steven Soderbergh film, and she acquits herself admirably despite a screenplay that seems inexplicably designed to play against her strengths as a performer. I wonder if Steven Soderbergh actually saw any of her movies, or if the decision was based on marketing: “We’re doing a film about a prostitute? Dude, we should totally get a porn star!” (That is how Steven Soderbergh talks in my head. Although in all fairness, that’s how everyone talks in my head.). Miss Grey’s greatest asset as a performer, arguably, is her intensity, particularly when juxtaposed with an everyday persona (see Digital Playground’s The Babysitters, for a great example), but in The Girlfriend Experience she never gets to break out of that muted exterior. We never see the “real” Chelsea, and she admits to it, arguing that her clients – and by extension, the audience – are only paying good money to see an act. But that’s not strictly true: the audience is paying to seeing something engaging, something The Girlfriend Experience eschews in favor of art house pretentions. For every genuinely interesting moment in The Girlfriend Experience, like the time Chelsea catches one of her regular clients with another escort and feels surprising pangs of jealousy, there are several awkward “Clever in a Film School Way” moments, like the time two street performers sing about how criticism is hard after Chelsea’s sexual services receive a scathing review on the internet.

Speaking of scathing reviews on the internet, it’s important to note that while I am giving The Girlfriend Experience the proverbial “Thumbs Down,” it’s not an awful movie, it’s just not a very interesting one. Soderbergh fans and art house fans in general will appreciate the lofty ambitions and somber tone, and while it probably won’t be the breakout role she was hoping for, Sasha Grey’s performance is a decent one that will certainly help her find more mainstream work (assuming, of course, that’s what she wants). But that’s damning with faint praise. At the end of the day, The Girlfriend Experience just feels so insubstantial that you could probably earn more valuable experience spending the night in World of Warcraft… killing boars.

The Girlfriend Experience is available now in both standard and high definition on Xbox Live, and opens in theatrical release on May 22nd.