Some things I liked some I did not.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

New York City glamour, extremely real acting and scenarios followed by CNN circa 2008 mumbo-jumbo, annoyingly flashy cinematography, and wanna-be American Psycho depravity-in-materialism preaching. Rarely do it want to shut off a movie every five minutes, and if so, even more rarely do I find something to respect in the next five. As to Sasha Grey and her acting abilities, I think she's OK at it. Many reviews scathe her for "deadpan", but I think that's what high-class dumb sluts actually are probably like. Pretty much empty. Making the most of what god gave them in a depraved way. To me it seems real. The "hooker's boyfriend" character was great, which is hard to pull off in my mind. I really empathized with this guy in a weird situation.What's not real are the characters of many, though not all, of the "rich assholes". That's about as eloquent as Soderberg is with these characters, "They're just rich assholes" when "the rest of us are hurting" as we are reminded again, and again, and again. The script and plot line isn't great, often forced by some contrived circumstance, and really goes nowhere in the end. Maybe 5 is too generous. I guess I was intrigued.

I was drawn to this film because of the casting of Sasha Grey and Steven Soderbergh directing. I was actually sort of baffled by it....Steven Soderbergh directed an indie starring Sasha Grey?! What?! I just had to check it out.They had an interesting concept. Drawing parallels between politics and the world of the prostitution. This movie potentially could have been really interesting and insightful. Instead it was extremely bland, awkward, and pointless.The core of the issues I feel that the script is very, very weak. The filmmakers had a good concept and it is beautifully shot, but the script is honestly terrible. The dialogue is awkward and it has very strange pacing. There is no character development at all and none of the characters are written to make a lasting impression. All of them are boring. Sasha Grey's character, Chelsea, is poorly written, which is a shame considering she is the main character. Chelsea doesn't seem to have any motivation. There is no explanation for any of her actions that are hurting the people around her.The next big issue is the acting. I mean, with a script with such awkward dialogue and zero character development, it would be hard for ANY actor to put on a good performance. There wasn't much to work with. However, one can tell when an actor is actually trying. Sasha Grey's acting is honestly horrifying. Ms. Grey looked bored the entire movie. She delivered her dialogue in a very wooden manner. She is very robotic and awkward. It was as if she didn't even try. Even in the more dramatic scenes, her voice stayed the same, as if she was just reading her lines off the script. If she is trying to pursue acting after this movie, I would highly suggest that she get an acting coach or take some lessons, because she has some major work to do. As a matter of fact, I would advise her to not even try because she is just atrocious. When she says her dialogue, there is no feeling behind it. Sure, the script was bad, but it's pretty obvious that even with the greatest script in the world, Ms. Grey would still be awful. She looks like a movie star, she really does. She is beautiful. However, she comes across as very emotionally vacant when she is "acting" and she has no charisma or charm.Her costar, Chris Santos, who plays her boyfriend, never had a chance. He probably is a good actor, and I could tell he really tried to put on a good performance. But it's a lost cause because of the terrible script and a terrible costar.There isn't much a plot and the story went nowhere. No explanations to anything. It was overall quite a boring movie. It could have been good with a better script and a better actress to play Chelsea other than Sasha Grey, but it totally missed the mark.It's not worth seeing. I was drawn in because such a high profile director (Soderbergh) was directing Sasha Grey in what looked like an indie drama about prostitution. However, it's just an indie snoozefest and the casting of Sasha Grey is just a gimmick. Sasha Grey just can't act, plain and simple.2/10 only because it is beautifully shot and has good cinematography. Other than that it was a waste of time.

oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear Sasha grey maybe great when pretending to enjoy sex with several men at once but I'm afraid this film hinges on her performance and as a novice actor she fails big time. shame i could always see what they were trying to do with the film but the execution was just very "indie". So what were left with is a terrible film with a non ending .The obama election background is pointless the clumsy parallels between the prostitute and the gym instructor were far to obvious to be effective and the film felt like a big giant downer not an informative or beautifully done downer just a dour boring unchallenging tour de force of badness oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear

This disappoints hugely and I know why - Soderbergh and his bunch of family-guy buds who wrote/produced this have no concept whatsoever of what the escort-business is about: highly socialized prostitution! They clown around with a way too young and unsophisticated porn star (dress-up doll as a call-girl) like a bunch of puppies. 'Escort' is very sophisticated and serious business and has been covered very well in: 'Half Moon Street' and 'The Man from Elysian Fields'. Soderbergh should stick to the hand-held gritty stuff he does so very well: Sex, Lies and Videotape, Out of Sight, Erin Brokovitch, The Limey, Traffic, et al. He is totally out of his depth here - an embarrassment. Reminded me a bit of his miss with the quasi documentary: Full Frontal. Then it struck me - Soderbergh is attempting to fill the shoes of Robert Altman, whose docu. ensemble pieces were superb: Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, A Prarie Home Companion - even Mash held the right balance of ensemble v. star power.Steven directs star-power very well: Julia Roberts, George Clooney, JLo, Catherine & Michael, Benicio, Terrence Stamp, etc. There is no one with even a pulse in this sad spectacle.