Steven Soderbergh’s latest digital doodle The Girlfriend Experience isn’t just simple, it’s scant. With projects like these, simple is just fine, and while a conventionally structured story isn’t necessary, a compelling vision is. Without any dramatic tension, filling the void with rich detail and subtext becomes doubly important. Unfortunately, Soderbergh isn’t able to achieve that level of depth and the film comes across as little more than a sketch.
What he’s after is documenting the contradiction between the public faces we all wear as armor — how we act around others — and our true selves. Chelsea (Sasha Grey) is a “sophisticated” escort who struggles with the persona she’s forced to inhabit for her clients, and even for her boyfriend Chris. Chris is a personal trainer and therefore also someone who offers himself as a service or commodity. While there are some strong scenes, such as when Chelsea briefly lets down her guard in front a client, Soderbergh mostly draws thin situations for Chelsea to deal with her existential dilemma, often having her simply vocalize her feelings. Sasha Grey’s performance is fine, though she’s asked for little more than to look aloof and pensive. The act, however, grows tired quickly. Ditto for her costar Chris Santos.
This film’s DIY style feels too antiseptic and remote to mine emotional weight from the action, and the execution ranges from inspired to lazy to obnoxious. Soderbergh’s eye for framings, for example, is as sharp as ever. The decision to eschew a linear timeline by cutting up and rearranging scenes, while varying the rhythm of the film, ultimately feels empty. A scene filmed with a hand-held camcorder, complete with repeated zooms on nothing, meanwhile, simply took me out of the film.
In the end, though, it’s hard to fault the brave director for these HD curios. Even if they don’t always work, the idea of a successful and award-winning director chasing inspiration through small, personal, challenging projects is very refreshing. When a big-budget film fails, it’s hard to rationalize the waste of money, talent and time that would have been better spent somewhere else. A filmmaker like Soderbergh, however, is always curious and always working, on canvases both large and small. So why not give something like The Girlfriend Experience a try?
