Her role is often that of a $24,000 therapist and she's a slightly different woman with each man. The sex is often secondary, and sometimes it doesn't happen at all.
Those appointments often consist of dinners, nights at the movies, and lots of talk. Most of her regulars "date" her rather than merely having sex with her. Chelsea (Grey), is a high-priced escort who offers "the girlfriend experience" for anyone who can pay her $2000/hour price. The pre-election hype is heating up as the economy melts down. By design, this is one un-sexy motion picture. (The MPAA may feel compelled to call this "graphic nudity" since it is full frontal.) While there is frank sexual discourse, it's presented clinically. There is almost no nudity - the sole exception is a fast (1-2 second) shot of Grey padding au natural across the screen after getting out of bed.
In fact, the titillation factor in The Girlfriend Experience is virtually nil. Part character study and part snapshot of a specific time and place in American culture, The Girlfriend Experience marks the latest in a long line of atypical choices for Steven Soderbergh, who refuses to be pigeonholed, no matter how fastidiously his detractors and adherents attempt to pin him down.Īlthough Soderbergh's leading lady is the starlet who goes by the nom de porn of Sasha Grey, this is by no means an attempt by the director to go down the hardcore route traveled recently by respected British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom. The fascination with the film is that it offers an arm's-length opportunity to peer through a peephole into a lifestyle that will be exotic and alluring to most in the audience.
Voyeurism is a favorite pursuit of Americans, and The Girlfriend Experience works in large part because it indulges that pastime.