The Girlfriend Experience (2009)

A drama set in the days leading up to the 2008 Presidential election, and centered on a high-end Manhattan call girl meeting the challenges of her boyfriend, her clients, and her work.

Director:

Steven Soderbergh

Writers:

David Levien, Brian Koppelman

Stars:

Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, Philip Eytan

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sasha Grey	...	Chelsea / Christine
Chris Santos	...	Chris
Philip Eytan	...	Phillip
Colby Trane	...	Waiter (as T. Colby Trane)
Peter Zizzo	...	Zizzo
Ron Stein	...	Vegas Buddy #1
Marshall Gilman	...	Vegas Buddy #2
Michael Roberts	...	Vegas Buddy #3
Vincent Dellacera	...	Chelsea's Driver
Jim Kempner	...	Art Gallery Owner
David Levien	...	David
Mark Jacobson	...	Interviewer
Alan Milstein	...	Pete
Sukhdev Singh	...	Chris & Chelsea's Super
Ted Jessup	...	Chatty 'John'

Storyline

Chelsea (Sasha Grey) is a high-priced $2,000-an-hour call girl in Manhattan, offering a 'girlfriend experience': she'll dress with the client in mind, go to dinner and a movie, listen attentively to talk about work and finances, and she'll provide sex. It's October, 2008: a presidential election nears and the economy is in free fall. She has a boyfriend, Chris (Chris Santos), who's a personal trainer. We are shown five non-consecutive days in Chelsea's life. She's working on her Web page, talking to image consultants, and being interviewed by a reporter. She asks clients when their birthdays are and uses that for an astrological prediction. She's drawn to a new client, a writer from L.A. Should she break her rules for him? What if it risks her relationship with Chris? Should she invest in gold?

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Plot Keywords:

presidential election | female nudity | reference to barack obama | porn actor in mainstream movie | call girl | 

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Taglines:

See it with someone you ****

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content, nudity and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Steven Soderbergh first heard about Sasha Grey when he read an article in Los Angeles magazine about her.

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Quotes

Interviewer: We agreed to meet here and have this kind of situation, which is a transactional situation like the one you deal with all the time in your business, right? Now, we're up to this part where I'm asking you something that would actually be intresting to me, and I feel that you're holding out on me. I mean, the thing is that the inner you is really... I mean, there's... in this business it's all about appearance, right? If you weren't beautiful, nobody would be paying to bang you, right? To put it ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

After the end credits, there's a brief scene of Chelsea washing a client's hair as he sits in a bathtub and talks about John McCain.

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Connections

References Forrest Gump (1994)

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Soundtracks

Freak Show
Written and Performed by Shakerleg
Courtesy of Bleeding Hands Music

User Reviews

I Liked It

I've been a fan of Soderbergh for a long time. The way he shoots his films, the subjects he finds interesting, the places he takes the characters; all these things appeal to me. Also, his movies always have diverse characters, ethnically speaking, which I like.

This movie has an episodic quality. It's a day in the life sort of thing. Nothing monumental happens, but what does happen feels real. What's even better is that nothing stupid is concocted for the sake of shock value.

Sasha Grey is actually quite good. If I didn't know anything about her background, I'd still say the same thing. She not good "in spite of," she's just good.

I give it a recommend.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

8 July 2009 (France)

Also Known As:

GfE

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,700,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$162,965, 24 May 2009

Gross USA:

$695,840

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,060,941

Company Credits

Production Co:

Magnolia Pictures, 2929 Productions, Extension 765

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1