What Doesn’t: Viewers who demand traditional narrative are likely to be put off by the style of The Girlfriend Experience. The suggestions of the film run deep and put a human face on economics while questioning what personal consequences result from a capitalist system. With characters small talking about the bailout of Wall Street, discussing their own domestic and economic hardships, and showing the exchange of trust, services, and money, The Girlfriend Experience implies that the main character’s line of work is not all that different from the way the world of business operates. Soderbergh has used the story of an escort set against the current economic crisis to make this film a penetrating examination of capitalism and of the human factors involved in a business transaction. Instead, The Girlfriend Experience has a cold and sterile quality about it and Sasha Grey’s detached performance coveys a woman who is bored by her life and who is emotionally vacant. It does not portray her as a victim or as a fallen woman nor does the film glamorize her livelihood. But what really stands out about The Girlfriend Experience is that it avoids all the stereotypical pitfalls that films about prostitution often fall into. The Girlfriend Experience is told in a nonlinear fashion and is skillfully edited and shot. The Girlfriend Experience fits into the latter category and among that collection of films, this is the best picture Soderbergh has ever made. What Works: Steven Soderbergh is a filmmaker whose work can be sorted into two distinct categories: one is star-driven, mainstream entertainment like Oceans 11 and the other is experimental, intimate films like Bubble.
Premise: The film follows a high-class escort (Sasha Grey) in New York as she meets with clients and interviews with a writer researching her line of work.