The Movie
I'm hard pressed to think of any film made in the past decade that better illustrates the difference between appreciation and enjoyment than The Girlfriend Experience. On an academic level, it's nearly everything you could ask for in a film -- beautifully shot, cleverly edited, with a positively captivating leading lady and a script that actually manages to delve into territory that lends itself so easily to clichés without ever leaning on those easy crutches. You have to applaud the bravery of any film about a high-end escort that features nary a lick of onscreen sex and that strays far away from traditional hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold or poor-little-lost-girl themes.
You also have to applaud Steven Soderbergh for casting adult film star Sasha Grey in her first mainstream role. Grey is equal parts captivating and aloof in the role. She's natural and obviously comfortable in her own skin (very little of which we see in the film, by the way -- sorry, fellas). I hope you won't judge me unfairly for admitting to having seen some of Grey's previous work, but I only bring that up to point out that I honestly forgot her experience in adult films while watching her here. She owns her role in a way few actresses do.
The Picture
For what it's worth, the film's tedium certainly doesn't stem from its visuals. Despite being shot for a mere $1.3 million on the relatively inexpensive RedOne digital cinema camera, The Girlfriend Experience is an absolutely joy to look at -- beautifully framed, sumptuously saturated, rich and inviting. Granted, it's a bit inconsistent, owing mostly to the fact that the film was largely shot using natural light. Contrasts are, at times, overblown. Blacks are, on occasion, crushed. And skin tones shift from location to location. Still, it's hard to fault the film's inconsistencies when the end result is so aesthetically interesting. Despite being soft in spots, the 1080p transfer sports nice detail and is unmarred by distractions such as egregious noise reduction or edge enhancement.
The Sound
It's a little harder to get excited about the audio. Ostensibly a 5.1-channel DTS-HD Master Audio affair, the mix is largely locked into the center channel, with the front left and right speakers receiving a bit of sporadic flirtation during musical moments later in the film. If the surround speakers so much as hissed while I was listening, I must have slept through it.
That said, the focus here is on dialogue, the delivery of which is mostly flawless, with the exception of a few scenes.
It should be noted, however, that both my PlayStation 3 an the OPPO BDP-83 currently in my system have difficulty with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack for the alternate cut of the film also included on the disc, in the exact same spots. In fact, the audio for one extended scene in particular disappears completely, no matter which player is decoding the audio.
Switching to bitstream output and allowing my Anthem D2v processor to decode the audio fixes the problem completely on both players, but those who rely upon onboard decoding might want to prepare for frequent stuttering, occasional dropouts, and at least one long stretch of silence during the alternate cut.
The Extras
The only reason to own this disc, in my opinion, is the audio commentary track with director Steven Soderbergh and star Sasha Grey. And it's almost enough to justify the price on its own, because, quite frankly, it's far more interesting to hear Soderbergh and Grey discuss the making of the film, the preparation for it, the themes, the character interactions, than it is to actually watch the film itself. The duo also spends a lot of time discussing Miss Grey herself, and how her experiences in adult films prepared her for her role as a top-dollar escort. Definitely one of the more engaging commentary tracks I've heard in some time.
As previously mentioned, the disc also includes an unrated alternate cut of the film, although as usual "unrated" is a bit of a misleading label, given the complete and utter lack of any changes that would alter the film's rating. For the most part, this is simply a slightly different cut of the film, with different takes used at times, a few alterations to the flow of the film, a little bit added, and a little taken away here and there. Again, interesting on an academic level, but I would have liked to see something a little more more different from the theatrical cut.
The disc also includes a five-minute HDNet: A Look at The Girlfriend Experience, which is a little more than an extended trailer/EPK puff-piece, as well as trailers for Two Lovers, What Just Happened, and The Life Before Her Eyes and a promo for HDNet.
Final Thoughts
It's a shame that The Girlfriend Experience ultimately fails to satisfy completely, given how much it has going for it. In the end, though, the sum of its parts is simply so much greater than the whole. Great performances (especially from Grey) and engaging characters can't make up for the uneven script and elements that really ought to work better than they do -- the plane flight to Vegas, for example.
That said, if you even remotely liked The Girlfriend Experience, you owe it to yourself to check out the audio commentary. It's almost worth checking out even if you loathed the film.
Product Details
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