“Girlfriend experience” is a term used by chichi, expensive,
$2,000-an-hour escorts to describe not just paid fucking, but the
accompanying personal time—lots of kissing, cuddling, hair
tussling, and talking. Oh, the TALKING. This is a movie all about
talk-talk-TALKing. It’s a story about relationships and sex—yet
there isn’t any sex in the film. All they do is TALK. And talk. And
talk some more.

I’m sure some people will see this film just because the
lead, Chelsea, a gorgeous and
business-minded Manhattan call girl,
is played by real-life porn star Sasha Grey. Grey is a superstar
pioneer in the adult-film industry—smart, atypically and
naturally beautiful, and a fearless triple-X extremist. Think of the
most extreme sexual act you can imagine, and Grey has probably done it.
Twice. It’s this extremism that’s absolutely lacking in The
Girlfriend Experience, and I don’t mean just in the physical
sense.

Chelsea’s life and her relationship with her bubble-headed gym bunny
of a boyfriend, Chris (a metrosexual-looking and completely
unbelievable character), are absolutely devoid of human emotion,
leaving the characters and their relationship inconceivably ordinary.
Soderbergh was definitely trying to explore the cold, unaffected,
unemotional world that sex workers have to live in, but Grey’s
dead-eyed and too-frequent blank stares leave Chelsea’s character flat
as a pancake. She ends up seeming disinterested, inaccessible, and,
well, boring and/or perpetually bored.

Set in pre-2008-election New York City, Girlfriend also
comments on economic anxieties, politics, and the state of capitalism.
But these points get lost in all the talk-talk-talking and in the zero
chemistry between Chelsea and Chris. An emotionless interaction between
Chelsea and a screenwriter client, which finally makes her cry one or
two tears of actual vulnerability, seems to serve as the film’s
climax—if you can really credit the plot as having one of those.
Sadly, though beautifully shot by an A-plus ace director,
Girlfriend is the first film out of hundreds that Grey has made
that simply doesn’t ever climax. recommended

Kelly O—formerly a Stranger staff photographer, music writer, Drunk of the Week columnist, and more!—finished art school and a soul-crushing internship at a corporate advertising agency in Detroit,...

6 replies on “<i>The Girlfriend Experience</i>: Sasha Grey’s Limp Big-Screen Debut”

  1. I still want to see this movie. As someone who has recently become a “recession hooker” I’m interested in how the pros maintain professionalism while still feeling like you personally connect to the men who pay for your companionship. I actually like some of the men who pay me for sex, but I am not in a position to give any of my time away for free or even low-cost so I feel like I’m learning how to balance on a tightrope right now.

  2. Kelly, I love ya, but I think you may have gone into this hoping for something else, and that prevented you from actually watching what was there. You seem annoyed by the lack of sexiness and passion here, but that was kind of the point: Money–and talking about money–is the subject matter, not sex. Grey’s flat manner actually works in the context of the film, in that it makes a point about how switched off she is in her pursuit of economic advancement. I’m sure that cool demeanor of hers is why Soderbergh hired her in the first place.

    I’m not saying it’s a masterpiece or anything, or that Grey is some kind of prodigy. When Chelsea drops her guard and suffers the consequences, it rings a little false. It just seems like you had some preconceptions that colored your review. If you want to see Grey getting nailed (and who doesn’t?), a 10-second Google search can accomplish that.

  3. #1, absolutely see this movie. I was only disappointed, only because it was chilly cold. Great story, great director, great actress. But no emotion. Missed opportunity?

  5. “Oh, the TALKING. This is a movie all about talk-talk-TALKing.”

    So, I guess it’s a lot like her other movies then?

  6. Movies often portray sex-workers, but their customers remain well hidden – faceless and nameless. “As a filmmaker, I simply wanted to reveal what is hidden – the john”. So says Pietrobruno – the director of GFE: GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE. An entertaining peek into the world of prostitution from the client’s point of view, Pietrobruno’s GFE: GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE follows a man obsessed with prostitutes who discovers that love is a lot more expensive than sex.

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