The Girlfriend Experience

It seems like every couple of movies, Steven Soderbergh is trying something innovative and cutting edge. Several years ago it was Bubble, which was a mess of real people in acting roles and a plot that was barely present. So enter The Girlfriend Experience. A follow up of sorts. just replace non actors with porn actress. Plot? No we'll stick with the whole no plot thing.

The movie stars porn actress Sasha Gray as a high class prostitute. We ramble around with her as she visits clients, talks to a journalist and her boyfriend. This all inter cut with scenes of her boyfriend going on a trip to Vegas and other random scenes that confused me. I can't even begin to understand what the point is. But Soderbergh seems really committed to finding a way to get a movie to work with non traditional actors. Its like Cinema Verite without anything to make you interested.

I recently saw Sasha Gray interviewed and she listed her five favorite movies. What the hell? Jean Luc Goddard? And Escape from New York? She actually seems sort of interesting. But coming as no shock to anyone ever, she can't act. At all. In fact its rather painful. Especially in her scenes where she is waxing intellectual with her clients.

Oddly enough at one point in voice over we hear a "review" of Gray's prostitute by a vindictive "pimp" which is about spot on as to the believability of Ms. Gray as a high class prostitute. My only hope is that when Soderbergh makes this train wrecks it gets whatever it is out of his system. And then he gives us something like Out of Sight.