A Night With the Girlfriend

No, I'm not talking about a cuddle session with a special someone. Sorry to disappoint. No, I'm talking about 2 movies with the word "girlfriend" in them -- Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and The Girlfriend Experience. The former I would recommend watching with your girlfriend, the latter...not so much.

GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST

Okay, yes, I watched this movie. By myself. And yes, I am a straight man. But say what you will about chick flicks, they are at least entertaining...for the most part.

Ghosts is play on A Christmas Carol, if you couldn't tell by the title. It stars Matthew McConaughey (McConaughey in a chick flick. Surprise! Surprise!) as the ultimate, unrepentant playboy. Who, while at his deceased playboy uncles estate for his little brother's wedding, is visited by 3 ghosts who show him (or rather the audience) why he is the relationship hating man whore that he is, how his antics have affected and are affecting others, and what will be the result if he carries on the way he is. Jennifer Garner stars as the girl-that-got-away-slash-only-one-who-really-sees-him-for-who-he -really-is-slash-girl-he-really-loves. Michael Douglas stars as the dead uncle. And then there are a bevy of pretty girls who all love McConaughey even though they all know he's a player.

This movie is totally predictable, as are pretty much all chick flicks. But that's not why we watch them now is it? No, we watch them to watch the flawed male realize the error of his ways, and beg the beautiful, perfect female to give him another chance or take him back or whatever, and also save the day by reversing all the bad he's done to his loved ones in one night. And everyone lives happily ever after. This movie was bad for all intensive purposes, but I still enjoyed watching it. McConaughey is his typical charming, yet flawed, humorous, frazzled self, its fun to see carefree existence and how (no matter how unbelievable it may be) he just uses and abuses girls with no consequence to the next girl. The play on A Christmas Carol is a neat idea. There's something intriguing about watching someone watch themselves. I guess because we all kind of would like to go back and see our selves in our past. Jennifer Garner is one of those girls that you can't help but fall in love with. Forget the fact that she was in Daredevil and Elektra. She's awesome, and I challenge anyone to argue with me about that.

Like I said earlier, this is one to watch with your little lady. It'll give you a few good laughs, and you'll see a super happy ending. You may be a little dumber afterwards, and you might feel like there were many other ways to have spent the last 100 minutes, but at least you'll be kind of happy. Because in the end, Nicholas Sparks' stories aside, that's all chick flicks aim to do, make you smile and say "Awwww, how sweet!!" Well, they're at least supposed to make you girlfriend say that.

THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE

The Girlfriend Experience is a very intriguing movie. It's a movie about a high end escort, her clients, and her relationship with her boyfriend, all set against the backdrop of the most recent election and the beginning of the decline of the economy. It's directed by Steven Soderbergh (the director behind Oceans 11, 12, and 13, and Traffic, just to name a few), and it stars Sasha Grey, who is a porn star who is making her first appearance in a non-porn, and who doesn't look like a porn star. She's actually genuinely pretty. She's thin, with long dark hair, pale skin and small, real boobs. It's filmed in a kind of a documentary-esque style. The filming style, combined with the fact that you know you are watching a movie staring a girl that actually has sex for a living, and the fact that she looks like a normal girl who you would believe is someone's girlfriend instead of a hooker, creates the effect and feeling that you are actually watching a documentary about an actual high end escort. Say what you will about a woman's career choices, there is still something incredibly interesting about prostitutes. Its also interesting to see the relationship of a prostitute and her boyfriend. It's quite interesting to hear a girl talk about her day at work with her boyfriend but it includes her telling him about the men she had sex with that day. Weird. The scenes are shown out of order chronologically, but come together in the end. This requires you to pay very close attention to the movie and you spend half the movie not know what in the world the people are talking about in the scene because the events that are being talked about haven't been shown to you yet. If the idea of really having to think while watching a movie doesn't appeal to you, maybe the fact that you only have to do it for 78 minutes will help. If hearing that this movie is staring a porn star playing a prostitute sounds like the perfect equation for lots of sex and nudity, then you are wrong. If I can remember correctly, there is only one scene of nudity and it is very brief.

I liked this movie for many reasons, but these reasons may also be the same reasons that someone else will not like it. The documentary style really added to the believability of the story but some people may not like that shaky, gritty style. The out of order story telling requires you to think and pay attention, and I personally like movies that challenge me mentally. There are no known actors in this movie, which once again adds to the realness factor. One wouldn't think that a porn actress would be worth a flip playing a character that isn't on her back the whole movie, but I was actually quite impressed with Sasha Grey's performance. While she isn't required to do too much, you really feel like you are watching an escort navigate her way through life. Just a warning, there's not a lot of action, things just happen and that's it. There's no big climax or confrontation. It's just a period of time in the life of a prostitute and it's a very intriguing, captivating story.

I would give this movie 2 thumbs up, a B+, a "go see" recommendation. But, I give all this with a footnote, a fine print warning that this is not a movie for everyone, its unusual and a bit frustrating at times. However, if you want to see a movie that is far more different from anything that you've seen in a while, I highly recommend this one.