The Girlfriend Experience (2009)

The Girlfriend Experience (2009)

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Screenplay by: David Levien and Brian Koppelman

Genre: Drama
Running Time: 78 Minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Viewed: Rental DVD - Blockbuster

See it with someone you ****.

[IMDb]

Comments: I had a hard time deciding if I enjoyed The Girlfriend Experience or I was completely annoyed by it. Some of Soderbergh's shots are breathtaking; others just seem to be horribly self-indulgent. To be fair, I haven't seen a number of Soderbergh's smaller independent features, so I can't really compare. But from what I have seen, his camerawork and uniqueness either works well (Traffic and the Ocean's Eleven series) or becomes distracting to the main point of the film (The Girlfriend Experience and The Limey jump to mind). Sasha Grey's mainstream feature film debut leaves a little to be desired, but then again it's hard to take her seriously after seeing her slapped and choked whilst having the shit vigorously pounded out of her. Her facial expressions were good, but her dialogue delivery was a little... porn star-ish. Anyway, there was some to like in Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience. However, parts of the film were so pretentious that it took me out of the "moment" Soderbergh is trying to create. Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way. Or maybe I'm just not cool enough. I'm never cool enough.