Rating: R | Runtime: 77 minutes
Release Date: May 22nd, 2009 (USA)
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Director(s): Steven Soderbergh
Writer(s): David Levien & Brian Koppelman

If they wanted you to be yourself, they wouldn’t be paying you.

I like the Ocean’s movies as much as the next guy, but something about Steven Soderbergh’s indie films show how much of a paycheck job those blockbusters are. His artistic endeavors may not always work—see the disappointing Ché: Parts 1 & 2—but they do consistently show an auteur trying something new by challenging himself and his viewers. I have not yet seen Bubble, but 2009 brings a second feature under his HDMovies deal to theaters, DVD, and TV simultaneously.

That film is The Girlfriend Experience starring pornstar Sasha Grey as sophisticated escort Chelsea and her struggles in a Depression-era NYC weeks before the presidential election. Juxtaposing her job with that of her personal trainer boyfriend—yes, this “legal” sex worker has a live-in significant other—we get a glimpse into the world of high-class, high-salary business and how the economy effects them and their clients like it does everyone else.

The title is an interesting choice because Grey’s escort doesn’t really play the girlfriend to any of her clients onscreen. Mostly used as a prostitute for men who have left their wives and children at home, her only real need to be the girlfriend is with her boyfriend Chris. This then begs the question of whether her relationship with him is also just another job. A situation of convenience since Grey’s affinity for her astrology books seem more important than what she has with him.

One could call the film The Boyfriend Experience because he’s (Chris Santos) the one playing that specific role. She’s with a different man each night, so she needs that one constant at home. And he fills that role in her life. It’s as though his presence becomes her payment for sex like the money is from her clients. If she’s willing to wreck a year and a half of what they’ve had together to “see” what comes of a new client—one who’s married with two little girls—you know it has all just been a game.

The economy has put financial security in limbo for everyone, but it’s also left the permanence of love on the fringes. Much like Grey’s Chelsea attempts to branch out and start a clothing boutique (while expanding her escort service), Chris is trying to get a fitness line into stores on consignment while also shopping himself around to other gyms in the city to find more money. This insecurity about the future pushes them into doing things they wouldn’t normally do.

Chelsea is meeting with a sleazy message board operator to grow exposure and must “satisfy” him to do so while Chris goes behind the back of the gym he isn’t willing to wear a uniform for yet still hopes to earn a managerial position with. Their personal lives aren’t left untouched, though. Grey looks to her customers as possible new love interests to kick Chris to the curb while he is propositioned by a client to attened a guy’s trip to Vegas that he’s willing ignore is she disapproves. So, of course he’ll threaten to leave if she subsequently spends a weekend away with her client.

I don’t use the word proposition lightly either. Soderbergh appears intentional in showing how similar these two characters are. Both set appointments for clients. Both are in the business of getting to know their contacts personally to help facilitate future engagements. Chelsea sells her body to satisfy men’s sexual desires. Chris sells his to satisfy gym members’ need to feel good about their own physiques.

Both are asked to take out-of-town trips and both try to set themselves apart from their competition—whether gyms or the new girl on the escort circuit. These two actors do an admirable job in portraying these conflicted and troubled roles. They may not be “professionally” trained in the craft (I’m a bit surprised by all the praise being lauded on Grey), but they’re effective at portraying these versions of themselves.

In a climate that has their customers embroiled in serious discussions about the upcoming election and their diminishing profits (Chris’ business friends take him to Vegas and still keep talking politics while Chelsea’s men either try and tell her how to liquidate her funds or who to vote for … when they aren’t on their phones and keeping her waiting in lingerie a room over), they are prove to be very much the exact same person. The only difference between them is that he genuinely loves her while Grey possesses only a fleeting desire in him.

So, I guess the title works better than previously thought. She is giving him the girlfriend experience, even if unintentionally. Karma has a way of getting back at you, though, and Grey’s hubris soon catches up to her. While business may be booming for now, her personal life is falling apart. We worry so much about how the economy affects our livelihood that we refuse to recognize what matters most. If we don’t find and hold onto the love in our lives, all the financial success in the world won’t mean a thing.

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Sasha Grey in THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, a Magnolia Pictures Release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.