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THE BUSINESS OF STRANGERS Send This Review to a Friend
A jolting film that I first saw at the Toronto International Film Festival (2001) is "The Business of Strangers," in which Stockard Channing and Julia Stiles give searing performances as two characters in an intense power struggle involving the pressures of business and the pressures of being upwardly mobile as women. Channing plays a top level executive, Stiles portrays an angry young employee, and after their paths meet emotional hell breaks loose as the younger woman manipulates her senior and unleashes behavior that the older woman wouldn't have thought she had in her.
The explosive situation involves a male headhunter (Frederick Weller) who doesn't know what's raging about him and stumbles into a dangerous situation rife with resentment, hate and lurking violence. "The Business of Strangers" is an auspicious directorial debut for Patrick Stettner, who also wrote the taut screenplay. With this film Stettner clearly establishes himself as an important artist whose control and technique make him a filmmaker to watch.
The issues raised by this drama are provocative. The screenplay focuses on the resentments women may harbor as a result of what they must endure as they fight for success, and on the conflicts between business and personal life. An accusation of rape emerges. What if it isn't true? Would that matter in the entire spectrum of male-female relationships? The possibility that some might believe it would not is a wicked notion that jars one's sense of fairness and justice.
The escalating tension between the women and a period of complicity is suspenseful and harrowing. Above all, Channing as the successful but fearful Julie and Stiles as the manipulative, rage-filled Paula give terrific, riveting performances that are among the best in the year 2001. An IFC Films release.
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