The Girlfriend Experience
Dir. Steven Soderbergh
No description of this film really does it justice. I think that is mainly due to everyone focusing on the main character's job as an escort. It also doesn't help that Sasha Grey is a high profile adult film star. The movie itself is more about economics than it the sex trade and her lies its strength. It is a film about perspective. Seeing the economic crisis through the mindset of an 'it' girl escort, someone who, like the monetary climate, has seasons. She's young, fit and beautiful but soon she'll get older and a younger model will replace her. She needs to act now and act fast. One of the most beautiful scenes is carried out between her and a client of 2 years. The client is stroking her hair with such affection and mentioning how important she is in his life when he realizes he's been seeing her for two years. The first thing that came to my mind was "How much longer can she do this?" and "How old was she when she started?" I also thought that the shock of the realization might make his affection wain, but it doesn't and the scene ends with him studying her with such admiration in his eyes. I was really moved by it.
The film is a bit meandering, but well made. Grey herself has moments of brilliance, but I often found her cold, hard to read and empty. I hope she continues acting in mainstream material, she's got the ability, she just needs to warm up a bit. Her beauty is intoxicating, for this reason she is so popular in the realm of Blue Cinema, but would be most appropriate gracing glossy magazines hocking perfume, cosmetics and high fashion. Even with such elegant beauty Soderbergh finds angles that are not the least bit flattering when he needs to make her more vulnerable.
A solid outing.
Grade B