MovieChat Forums > The Girlfriend Experience (2009) Discussion > For those who think the film is awful...

For those who think the film is awful...

posted 15 years ago by ynisfre
10 replies | jump to latest

First of all, no, the film wasn't tremendously statisfying dramatically. It's a 75 minute, nonlinear, digital film shot in a couple weeks starring an actress who had only done porn up until then. You were expecting Hamlet? It's not like all this information wasn't already out there. This was pretty clearly an experimental film on many levels... seems like people would be willing to go with it.

Having said that, it is not at all dumb and certainly not pointless. Soderbergh even holds your hand by placing all the key themes explicitly in the final scene.

On the surface the film is a look at a type of lifestyle that is shallow, stressful, and unfulfilling. A world where everything is a commodity.

But underneath that the film is also about the anxieties of modern life. It's about captial A Angst. The main characters are searching for something better. Better job. More control. Someone they have more of a connection with. Some sort of spiritual or philosophical answers. They're constantly on the go and trying to evaluate their lives, but nothing seems to bring them any closer to peace or contentment.

As I said, it's all there in the final scene. A practicing Jew worried about the economy and the state of Israel hires Christine, but not for sex. He hires her to hold him... to comfort him. Everything troubling the characters in the film is emobodied by this one guy: society, politics, economics, sex, religion. The whole package. It's enough to give a guy the shakes.

It's less a story, or even a portrait, as it is a sign of the times.

[–] colwood 15 years ago

.....whatever makes you sleep better......

I'm not saying the story was bad. There is a story to tell, but whatever it was Soderberg completely screwed it up.

[–] ynisfre 15 years ago

If you're only watching a movie for a story, that's fine but then you're gonna close yourself off to a certain section of films. I think a more reasonable complaint about the film is that it didn't really get you in the headspace of Chelsea. As a portrait of a high class hooker, the film left something to be desired.

But the level I enjoyed it on was very well done. The film had a very interesting subtext but only a pretty good text.

[–] jawsfan007 13 years ago

it's better to look at the film as a moments in this girls life and that's what the director is showing you. A single moment.

[–] Kompressor_Fan 9 years ago

It was almost like a documentary.

[–] thekino 13 years ago

You're an idiot.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jawsfan007 13 years ago

why? was that for me or someone else?

[–] sirgeddon 13 years ago

Yes, it may have some interesting moments and did give some insight into the main character and how she lives her life and how she relates to people around her but the story just didnt work on a dramatic level.

The nonlinear style just didnt allow me to connect with the character and there were too many scenes(like the ones in the plane) which didnt seem to matter.
I got the impression that Soderbergh wanted to tell the story in a very real and authentic way but forgot that it had to be engaging and interesting in order to work.

But as you said, its a low budget, experimental film shot in a couple of weeks. Its certainly not awful but could have been better.

[–] jawsfan007 12 years ago

yeah, i totally agree. with those statements. there could have been more too it and it does need to be engaging.

Some of the camera angles ere intereting though.

when she fights with her boyfriend, i kinda felt like saying

"guys, i 'll...I'll be in the hall when you're finished."

[–] rubirub 9 years ago

I really think you got the movie, ynisfre, but I didn't. I would like you or someone else to explain a little about what happens during the whole movie, because I've watched it but I haven't arrived to any conclusion.

I didn't get it...

Chelsea fell in love with a client who left her, for example? What's the message of the movie?

:(