1/2

This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.

Steven Soderbergh is an enigma. While many filmmakers vacillate to some degree between populist, studio fare and the occasional artsy project, Soderbergh possesses a cinematic schizophrenia all his own. The man who burst onto the scene and practically single-handedly invented the independent film with sex, lies, and videotape also made Oceans Eleven…and Twelve…and Thirteen. The same director who made Erin Brockovich, Traffic and Out of Sight also made Full Frontal, Bubble and Che. It’s as if Soderbergh is a cinematic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, forever ping-ponging between what people want to see and what he is interested in showing them. His latest film, The Girlfriend Experience, falls in the latter category — visually stylish, provocative and sexy, yet bland, detached and emotionally cold.

Chelsea (adult film star Sasha Grey in her mainstream film debut) is a high class call girl with an exclusive Manhattan clientele. Chelsea doesn’t offer sex alone but the entire “girlfriend experience” — companionship and erudite conversation. Chelsea, who manages her own business, is constantly looking for ways to get ahead, leverage her assets and secure her future in uncertain times. Surprisingly, she has a devoted boyfriend (Chris Santos) who accepts her lifestyle. But no matter how open the relationship, jealousy is always waiting in the wings.

With an immediacy that is disconcerting, The Girlfriend Experience takes place just before the 2008 presidential election. Characters argue not about the merits of electing an African American to the White House, but rather the economic policies he will put in place once there. Focused on the accumulation and management of wealth and the materialistic perks that wealth brings, The Girlfriend Experience allegorically examines modern consumerism. Eerily tapped into the zeitgeist, the film is something approaching a humorless satire on capitalism, specifically capitalism in peril and as such must be the first authentic filmic statement about the recession.

However, while beautiful, both the film and its female lead are cold and distant. With a cinéma vérité, documentary-like tone that invokes voyeurism at the expense of connection, The Girlfriend Experience is narratively unfulfilling. Not that Soderbergh isn’t in on it. He frequently obscures his star behind furniture or hides her deep in the shadows. He knows his audience is aware of his star’s erotic resume and no doubt have come to the theater expecting to see sex. But he never once gives it to them. This is a film about business. And relationships. And business relationships. As a piece of cultural anthropology, The Girlfriend Experience skips over characterization and zeroes in on the emotional ramifications of treating one’s personal life like an industry to be bartered, bought and sold.

Fascinating in a way that may not be totally apparent, especially while the film is running, The Girlfriend Experience is Soderbergh asking questions about companionship and commerce in the modern era. Just don’t think he’s going to stick around long enough to deliver any answers.

Free market. Free love. Which one matters when the sky is falling?

© Copyright 2009 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.