The Business Of Strangers
Oscar® nominee Stockard Channing (The West Wing) "gives the finest performance of her career," and Julia Stiles (Save the Last Dance)" is arrestingly and provocatively ambiguous" (The San Francisco Examiner) in a film critics are calling "riveting" (The Detroit News), "spring taut" (Chicago Tribune) and a "pleasure to watch" (The Washington Post)!
Two women on different rungs of the same corporate ladder meet on a business trip and swap stories over drinks. And after Paula (Stiles) intimates to Julie (Channing) that she'd been accosted by a mutual acquaintance, Nick (Frederick Weller), she enlists Julie's help in a revenge scheme against him. But as their plotting turns from cruel to criminal, Julie begins to wonder if she knows the whole story behind Paula's malice... or if Nick is even her true target.
Member Reviews
People are Strange - SPSullivan
Stylistically, "The Business Of Strangers" is all over the map. It starts off making you think it's going to be an exploration of the dog-eat-dog corporate lifestyle. Fifteen minutes later, it abruptly becomes a intriguing battle of wills between Julie and Paula, as the two very different but very intelligent ladies try to one-up each other while still enjoying a certain unique camaraderie. (A scene in an elevator full of men, in which Paula tries to bait Julie with a sexually-charged remark and the older woman rises to the challenge -- and then some -- is perhaps the movie's high point.) But then the last half of the picture degenerates into a titillating, transparent, rather mean-spirited wannabe-thriller. It's as though writer/director Stettner couldn't come up with a better way to develop his premise beyond the excellent middle reel, and so resorted to the filmmaker's last line of defense: melodrama. The performances by Channing and Styles, too, seem to rise and fall depending on the level of the material. During "Strangers"'s better sequences, they portray complex, engaging women; latterly, though, Julie and Paula come across as simply bitchy and indecisive. In style and approach highly reminiscent of a two-act play, "The Business Of Strangers" makes you wish you'd left the theatre during the intermission.
Member Reviews
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People are Strange - SPSullivan
Stylistically, "The Business Of Strangers" is all over the map. It starts off making you think it's going to be an exploration of the dog-eat-dog corporate lifestyle. Fifteen minutes later, it abruptly becomes a intriguing battle of wills between Julie and ...