The cinematography is intriguing and pleasant for most of the film and it had potential, though there are some flaws with the plot and main character.Perhaps with more character development and longer run time, Sasha Grey could have shown depth, but I found it was an unrealistic representation of high class escort work. Unlike what other reviews say, she would not need to be "less boring" in real life to make $2000/hr, although she would have limited regular clientele (i.e. probably not "the best" at what she does in the area as suggested). Some of her struggles in the film appeared unnatural and more like very mild daily struggles an escort encounters (stalkers? Taxes? Family of client? Clients pushing boundaries? Clients wanting exclusivity? "Friends" in the industry being untrustworthy? Bumping into someone and client hears your real name?).Less important but aside from this, the brand names recited were all pronounced very wrong, which appears even less likely she is actually shopping at those NY stores (kikidm - which is named after an historical figure). If you are familiar with high end lingerie boutiques + escorting you are bound to hear their proper name because you are probably going in person and paying in cash!I expected Grey to be a better fit for this role, as she had worked in the adult industry and and seems like a smart lady. It would have been nice to show some deeper client-escort conversations, or on the other end, some sort of personal emotional experience but neither occurred significantly; she must have something motivating her to continue this work? (Money is not enough after a while to do something you don't really care for, with people you don't fancy, and always interferes with a normal personal life)In summary, they should have consulted several real life escorts (not ones that rely on celebrity status for 2 hour novelty appointments either) and included one or two events that do not fall into the "ideal and unrealistic" sex work life depiction. Also - does not take much to decently pronounce french names...

Steven Soderbergh's docudramas are polarizing, although i have nothing against them. However, in The Girlfriend Experience it is unclear whether there is a message, criticism or was it just another artistic experiment.Sasha Grey is surprisingly good, if you bear in mind her previous experience in front of the camera, but the scenario was to weak, in my opinion. We follow Sasha Grey's character as she earns her daily bread as a high-class prostitute.It is a shady world she lives in, yet everything was filmed in such a matter-of-fact manner that i felt neither revulsion nor pity. It was unclear why should a girl such as the main protagonist choose such vocation, which, according to this film, feels like just another line of work.Again, The Girlfriend Experience is almost a documentary, which eventually left me wondering why i'm watching it, at all...

To fairly judge The Girlfriend Experience, you have to ask a simple question. What would you think of this movie if it were the product of an unknown filmmaker instead of Steve Soderbergh? My reaction would have been "Wow. This guy's an amazing cinematographer but he doesn't have a bleepin' idea how to tell a story." This thing looks like a Ferrari and runs like a broken down Dodge Dart.Set in the end of 2008 with the financial crisis underway and a Presidential election looming, this non-linear tale bounces through the lives of a young prostitute (Sasha Grey) and the many men she slides around. An escort who offers what is called "the girlfriend experience" where she not only has sex with you but pretends to actually "be" with you for as long as you can afford, she juggles her many clients, a live-in-boyfriend, a journalist trying to pry into her heart and a guy who offers to boost her career in whoredom by giving her a good review on his website that caters to guys who like going to prostitutes.The film skips from moment to moment and back again, circling around the escort and her personal trainer boyfriend (Chris Santos) before settling on a big event. The escort meets a client and is so taken with him at first sight that she agrees to go away with him for the weekend, breaking her professional rules and the trust of her boyfriend. The anticipated getaway goes poorly and she goes back to boinking moderately unattractive dudes for cash.The Girlfriend Experience officially lasts only 77 minutes, but it feels twice that long. It is bereft of energy or momentum and sits on the screen like the slowly melting ice sculpture of a vagina. The script tells you no more about the life of an escort than would the average magazine article and for all the whining and moaning about the economy done by many of the characters here, it tells you less than nothing about the 2008 financial implosion.It certainly looks great, though to no apparent purpose. For example, there's a scene where the escort and her boyfriend are talking in a bar. They're out of focus in the foreground and then the boyfriend goes back to the bar where it's in focus and exchanges a few words with other people there. In shooting it that way, Soderbergh may have been trying to say something about the indistinct and undefined nature of the escort and her boyfriend…or he might have just been dickin' around. I have no idea which it is. There's a lot of stylish imagery here but none of it seems connected to a narrative or even a theme.As for Sasha Grey, while her career as a porn star may be based on her physical accessibility, she's mentally and emotionally impenetrable here. Again, that may be the effect Soderbergh was going for. That doesn't change the fact that looking at Grey is like looking at a porcelain gravy boat.I can only hope that Soderbergh got to "experience" Grey for himself, because otherwise this motion picture wasted the time of literally everyone who made it, just as it will waste the time of anyone who watches it.

This disappoints hugely and I know why - Soderbergh and his bunch of family-guy buds who wrote/produced this have no concept whatsoever of what the escort-business is about: highly socialized prostitution! They clown around with a way too young and unsophisticated porn star (dress-up doll as a call-girl) like a bunch of puppies. 'Escort' is very sophisticated and serious business and has been covered very well in: 'Half Moon Street' and 'The Man from Elysian Fields'. Soderbergh should stick to the hand-held gritty stuff he does so very well: Sex, Lies and Videotape, Out of Sight, Erin Brokovitch, The Limey, Traffic, et al. He is totally out of his depth here - an embarrassment. Reminded me a bit of his miss with the quasi documentary: Full Frontal. Then it struck me - Soderbergh is attempting to fill the shoes of Robert Altman, whose docu. ensemble pieces were superb: Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, A Prarie Home Companion - even Mash held the right balance of ensemble v. star power.Steven directs star-power very well: Julia Roberts, George Clooney, JLo, Catherine & Michael, Benicio, Terrence Stamp, etc. There is no one with even a pulse in this sad spectacle.