Movie Review: GFE
I abbreviated the movie title, it should be "The Girlfriend Experience". The movie is about a high dollar escort working some high dollar clients in New York City in the five days before the 2008 elections. The first half hour of this movie was like watching Wall Street Review, all they did was talk money, blah, blah, blah.
Finally, they got into the meat of the story, but the movie's timelines are all over the place. It's an "experimental movie". This kind of timeline all over the place finally makes sense near the end, but as a writer, I feel the movie actually would've been better had it been linear, and had it not so much dealt with finance.
Sasha Grey, a porn actress, plays the lead character. Don't let this throw you, there's actually only four seconds of nudity, and no sex. Her character, Christine, actually has a serious boyfriend, even though she escorts. The girlfriend experience (GFE) is something some escorts will do. They will go to dinner with you, go on weekend outings, and kiss the client on the lips.
Christine plays it safe, running background checks on her clients, and she lets someone know who she's with, and when. She also walks away from 25,000 offers to go overseas when the junket offered is somewhat fishy. However, when she actually decides to spend an entire weekend with a client she likes as more than a client, the boyfriend has trouble with it.
Sasha provides a performance that should make the young actresses of Hollywood nervous. She displays a wide range of emotions and never once comes across as a porn actress who lucked into a role she doesn't deserve. She is mesmerizing and her on again, off again narrative is the most interesting thing in the movie (it should've been used more).
I give this movie four stars out of five (subtracting a star for the blah blah about finance).
Finally, they got into the meat of the story, but the movie's timelines are all over the place. It's an "experimental movie". This kind of timeline all over the place finally makes sense near the end, but as a writer, I feel the movie actually would've been better had it been linear, and had it not so much dealt with finance.
Sasha Grey, a porn actress, plays the lead character. Don't let this throw you, there's actually only four seconds of nudity, and no sex. Her character, Christine, actually has a serious boyfriend, even though she escorts. The girlfriend experience (GFE) is something some escorts will do. They will go to dinner with you, go on weekend outings, and kiss the client on the lips.
Christine plays it safe, running background checks on her clients, and she lets someone know who she's with, and when. She also walks away from 25,000 offers to go overseas when the junket offered is somewhat fishy. However, when she actually decides to spend an entire weekend with a client she likes as more than a client, the boyfriend has trouble with it.
Sasha provides a performance that should make the young actresses of Hollywood nervous. She displays a wide range of emotions and never once comes across as a porn actress who lucked into a role she doesn't deserve. She is mesmerizing and her on again, off again narrative is the most interesting thing in the movie (it should've been used more).
I give this movie four stars out of five (subtracting a star for the blah blah about finance).
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Amazon.com/videoondemand
it costs $6.99
I find it ironic that when the $2,000 per hour escort went to the store she wanted to buy the "cheapest" prepaid phone,
haggling with the shop owner over the phone price.
"I'll give you $80 for it" "actually we can't because the cost is $95"..."ok i'll give you $95 and buy two of them." "No, we can't do that. I'll do $100 at the least."
Also this movie illustrates the importance of review websites. In the movie, a blogger wrote a spectacular review for an upcoming escort and she ends up stealing one of Sasha Grey's regulars and becoming the most popular escort. This makes Sasha Grey realize the importance of the blogger because she originally turned him down when he wanted to fuck her and write a review about her. She gets depressed after seeing one of her regulars taken away from a new escort who rose to popularity from the review site. Then at the end she decides the fuck the blogger.
So the two main drama lines are the jealous escort boyfriend who can't stand her going out of town with a client. This client happens to be the client that calls her right before they are suppose to meet and tells her he changes his mind because he wants to be with his family this weekend instead. And second, how bloggers and journalists can build up escorts but also hurt their business with poor reviews. At first Sasha Grey decides to ignore the blogger and thinks he is a loser. But once she realizes how his reviews help a new escort take away some of her business she starts to take him serious.
I don't understand why they cast Sasha Grey in the role. With the amount of sex and nudity they could have gotten any Hollywood actress with no problem. Perhaps all the non porn actresses could recognize a bad script when they read it. I thought that Sasha Grey brought nothing to the part. She lacked personality and generated no sympathy for her character. She is not alone though not a single memorable character in the movie.
My advice is pass, skip it, don't rent it. I give it one big yawn.
Thirty years ago, porn films had plots (some old porn movies were quite good actually) and porn actors did crossover (mainstream and porn) roles. It's past time that we cast off the prudish actresses and their gay cohorts in favor of crossover actresses who will play a role with honesty.
The endlessly blah blahing about money was quite tedious, but there was honesty in the moments when she was with her clients. This is one of the most honest films I've ever seen.