It seems that most movies either portray the woman as a happy go lucky type that is swept off her feet (most would think it’s kinda insulting for someone think that she needs to be saved), the down and out stereotype, or the money obsessed. The professionals of you out there – neither stereotype quite fits. Maybe the true movie would be about as interesting as a movie about an normal accountant. BTW, are there any good movies out there about GOOD business men or entreprenuers? Google good business movie and you get results like Wall Steet and Boiler Room. None of those are motivating to create a good business or have as a good role models.

Look up Pretty Woman in Wikipedia. It asserts that the movie was originally scripted as a dark drama of a Pygmaylon type; then rescript as a romantic comedy to sell more tickets. The Pygmaylon underlying is still there in that Edward dresses and teaches Vivian to act like vision of the ideal woman he has in his head.

That being said, I have to say that just because it’s a movie about an escort, it has to reflect the reality of escorts in general. The way I saw it, it’s a story about a (sort of naive) escort who seems to have missguided expectations of the business and what she can accomplish in it. Maybe some of it seems unrealistic because the main character’s viewpoint is unrealistic.

The movie tells the story of the main character, as far as I could tell it never tries to imply that all escorts were bored, emotionless and jaded like the escort in the movie. That same lack of emotion can be found in any profession, when people decide to sacrifice interpersonal bonds in order to further their career. The way I saw it, it could’ve been about a dude in any given profession, who’s a bit overconfident in his success, a bit missguided about his own potential, and forfitted on meaningful relations for the sake of his own career.

I do agree that the plot seems to buy into a stereotype, and it doesn’t seem to add anything new or exciting to other stories about escorts, which is why the plot was kind of boring. Ok, now I’m just rambling, so I’m just gonna get back to work. Later!

Second, I’m just a no-name who wants to break into compositing film, tv, and commercials so these opinions are just from a grad student’s eyes.

Mark could well be right and you have something untapped here. Chris is also right in that usually it is a well developed character and not what the character does that makes or breaks the movie. I think because of time/money constraints they, the writers, didn’t research it well. Great stories also need to sustain believability. Unfortunately the mass population wouldn’t know any better in this realm.

I haven’t seen the film and after that review it sounds like it might bore me to death.

Side note – Courtesan! You are a cool character and I love the website layout. I personally can’t get my portfolio site to my liking. I am happy I stumbled on this blog and its perfume scented back alleys and high lofts is great for any hero or villain to slug it out. Sorry, nerd/geek leaking out of the ears again.

Thanks, Courtesan for your insight.

I agree the film had little content and wasn’t believable for a movie, but that was the fault of the “script” and “acting” if that’s what you could call it.

The problem in general with making a film about the escort business is that it doesn’t hold attention well. I would expect that the average process of screening, meeting, servicing, and leaving a client isn’t too interesting to a viewer, especially after the first watch. That’s why SDCG adds other drama and often shows non-average client services, because the usually business of an escort eventually becomes wall paper like any daily job.

The main reason I found it so terrible is not because of all the Hollywood hokum about what high-end call girls are like — I’m not so naive as to expect realism — but because of the script. Or lack thereof.

From an interview with Ms. Grey:
“Q. What did the script for this actually look like? Because it wasn’t a traditional script, what were you given to work with?

Sasha: It was a 15-page outline that I got the day before we started shooting. I would say each scene was there, but it was really just described. It might say, “Sex scene with Client B,” but there’s no sex in the film. We would get to set, look at that outline and sometimes, we would pick up the daily newspaper and, if there was something that jumped out to us, especially because we started shooting, literally the day before the economy crashed, we would pick things from current events that we felt related to our characters. Or, sometimes Steven would say something to one person, and then tell the other character in the scene the exact opposite.”
http://screencrave.com/2009-05-20/sasha-grey-interview-for-the-girlfriend-experience/

I read that and immediately was like, ‘Oooohhhhhh, so THAT is why it was so awful. Great job on ruining what could have been a great movie, Soderbergh!’