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A lot has been made of Sasha Grey’s role in Steven Soderbergh’s new film, The Girlfriend Experience, especially by the adult press. Our news outlets have a serious (self-hating?) obsession with porn performers “crossing over” into the mainstream and a porn actress making an independent film with an Oscar-winning director is certainly a far cry from, say, Zombie Strippers.

The Girlfriend Experience is about an expensive New York call girl named Chelsea and her boyfriend, a personal trainer, set during the fall of 2008 while the presidential campaign and the recession were both in full swing. The film follows them around to a variety of meetings where they both whore themselves out, albeit in slightly different ways.

It won’t come as a surprise to the many people who’ve noted that her porn performances tend to be a bit lackluster and flat that Sasha played her character competently, but without much emotion. The problem is, I’m not sure whether this was simply a mediocre performance or how her character was intended to come off. Perhaps both.

A complete lack of character development coupled with a meandering storyline is what sunk this movie. By the time things actually began to happen in the film (internet drama, forbidden love, relationship turmoil), I didn’t care. It wasn’t even clear exactly what was occurring at some junctures because Chelsea had no discernible motives or emotions.

To put it bluntly, The Girlfriend Experience was not a good movie. But it wasn’t Sasha Grey’s fault.

The reason I say it wasn’t Sasha’s fault is that she was barely even a character in the film she was supposed to be starring in. We see more of the back of Sasha’s head than any other part of her. When she’s not facing away from the camera, she’s often visually obscured by curtains, beams, darkness or furniture. These angles were so noticeable that it felt like Steven Soderbergh’s directing was the real “star” of the film.

Overall, it wasn’t a movie I enjoyed or would recommend seeing, but I didn’t hate it. I would say, however, that if you want to watch a Sasha Grey movie, Fashionistas: Safado would be a better choice.