Girlfriend Experience (2008)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Such a frustrating disappointment

From my favorite movies..

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Note that it is NOT the Steven Soderbergh film of the same name. If only my local video store had been so helpful as to point this out. Anyway, since the rental was already paid, I watched it. It is done as a pseudo-documentary, with a camera crew following around a downward spiralling, sex-addicted landscaping contractor (no, really) who lives in a motel room thanks to being kicked out by his girlfriend and who is going broke paying for sex with a teenage prostitute he is obsessing over. The hooker won't appear on camera, and so her scenes and speeches are re-created by an actress on a rather cheap looking soundstage, standing in for the motel room. The constant shifting back and forth between 'reality' and re-creation makes for a somewhat disorienting experience in which it is difficult for the audience to settle voyeuristically into the usual Cops-style reality TV experience, and this is obviously the point. The audience does not get voyeuristic titillation, it gets an education in male attitudes about sex, women and women who sell sex. The viewpoint is clearly feminist, with the men emerging as users and losers, not to mention the financial victims of their own needs, while the women come off as more stable and sensible. The documentary style is a good filming choice, as it hides the low budget while maintaining the illusion of reality and immediacy. That said, there are better ways to spend 90 minutes.

So this is basically a fake documentary about guys who regularly see prostitutes and imagine them being girlfriends.Could be interesting, but somehow it isn't.I didn't like this movie. All action is filmed in a dull and uninteresting way. When the women talk, you can barely hear it because they purposely (what purpose?) quieted down their voices. In many scenes there is a flashing subtitle that reads "re-enactment" - that puts the final nail in the coffin of what is this movie's believability. Why should you engage your fantasy in something that doesn't even claim to be the real thing?The movie also has a continuous undercurrent of sadness. That is maybe related to the fact that prostitution is illegal in the US (an absurd state of affairs to be sure). Or the un-reality of the imagined girlfriend experience. But none of these things really explains it. Apparently the director chose to make a sad movie for unknown personal reasons.{SPOILER AHEAD - although it doesn't matter much if anything is spoiled because there is no tension anyway}The movie also ends sadly, with the client being arrested by undercover officers for seeing the prostitute who claims to be underage. Maybe that is the movie's message?But then, what is the message? The movie stays strangely detached from all that happens and you never really know what it's trying to say. I don't know. I feel cheated and I don't want to watch this ever again. There isn't even any wisdom or anything surprising in what the guys say - and they basically talk all the time.Nah. This movie isn't even a turn-on.I'll give it a 2 for the fairly original concept. And for making a movie at all. But give us something enjoyable next time, please.

Although not much of an indie lover I saw this movie at a Women in Film fest last year. At first i found the camera work distracting but as the film progressed i got the "voyeuristic" slant that i assume the director was going for. In fact it very much added to the "documentary". The cinematography is beautiful and yet gives the effect of a minimum of stage lighting which enhances it's street feel. The use of tag along camera work only increased my sense of intruding on this characters life. I don't believe i'm giving anything away by stating this is not a documentary as the re-creation scenes clearly inform the viewer. It's a testament to the actors that the performances all around are so natural that I would imagine the lines begin to blur as far as realism and acting are blended together. It was interesting seeing this from the POV of the john, as every film out there seems to focus entirely on the prostitute. I had no idea GFE actually existed but of course it makes perfect sense. It's less about the sex act and more about the overall fantasy for these men/Daniel. Justification on how he can handle this lifestyle is a very powerful motivator for the main character and yet he goes against his own "code" by doing something he tells us is an absolute no. I will say this movie may not be for everyone as it doesn't sugar coat the lifestyle. It's rather gritty but I think the director does a fantastic job of laying it out there for the audience to experience. Definitely watchable. It's the worlds oldest profession and isn't going away anytime soon.

Ultimately this is a depressing and boring movie about a sex addicts delusional self destruction. It's shot in a documentary style with several fake "re-enactment" scenes. If you enjoy watch people on a boring course of self-destruction you'll have fun. If you're sane you'll skip this car crash and not waste your time on this well crafted disaster of a movie. I suppose somebody needs to tackle this issues of this movie but the people who did this movie clearly did it for their own glory without any concerns about how they are torturing the audience that the are boring with their "art". This movie typifies what is WRONG with the "Indie" scene in that it's more of an ego fest of production talents rather than containing ANY entertainment value. You should skip it!