4 out of 5

Director: Steve Soderbergh

Because director Steve Soderbergh so obviously enjoys experimenting with his independent features, it is sometimes difficult to judge how much we are meant to read into them. Is The Girlfriend Experience simply a 77-minute quiet study of call-girl Christine (Sasha Grey) and her attempts to lead both a regular life and that which her job entails? Or are we getting a deeper mediation on people, and relationships, and all of the strange factors that bring us to act the way we do? Its left quite vague, and I think to its credit: The Girlfriend Experience can either seem incredibly shallow or effing effective, depending on your state-of-mind or viewing tastes. This judgment could obviously be extrapolated to apply to relationships… to The Girlfriend Experience, a true offering of some call-girls to give clients a full romantic experience instead of just sex… to Soderberghs choice(?) to make his lead an actress who also happens to be a porn star… Christine is involved with Chris, her boyfriend of a year and half, who is aware of her occupation. Christine in-directly narrates parts of the movie, talking about clients, their desires, what they want, what causes them to make their next appointments. Events are sort of scattered, but we get to see various pieces that end up causing problems for Chris and Christine, spread over interactions with Christine and her clients and Chris – a personal trainer – and his clients. I honestly feel like this is one of Soderberghs best low-budgets since Sex, Lies… as I sit here, still affected by what I saw, still thinking about how it applies, how it doesnt apply. Theres an odd repeated theme of finances and money in the movie, but overall, you wont know what you think of this until you watch it, (Good review, eh?)