Cast: Stockard Channing, Julia Stiles, Frederick Weller
Director: Patrick Stettner
Producers: Robert H. Nathan, Susan A. Stover
Screenplay: Patrick Stettner
Cinematography: Teodoro Maniaci
Music: Alexander Lasarenko
U.S. Distributor: IFC Films
Patrick Stettner's The Business of Strangers becomes the second independent film in one season to focus on the subject of date rape. In the movie, Stockard Channing plays Julie, a successful business woman who is at the end of a long business trip and is looking to let off a little steam. Julia Stiles is Paula, a young woman she meets at a bar. Using alcohol as a lubricant, the two bond. Enter Nick (Frederick Weller), a head hunter whom Julie has casually known for years. Paula's reaction to Nick - one of horror and revulsion -- is unexpected. She later confesses to Julie that Nick raped a friend of hers years ago at college. So, with their inhibitions loosened by too much booze, the women plot a form of revenge.
For most of its running length, The Business of Strangers is a sharp, compelling film that walks a tightrope between thriller and drama. The psychological interplay between Julie and Paula lies at the movie's core, and Stettner gives us about 45 minutes of it. Like Richard Linklater's Tape (the aforementioned "other" date rape entry), the movie works because the dialogue is insightful and meaningful. The conflict between the two leads is entirely verbal, but it is every bit as tense as any cinematic physical confrontation. Only at the end, when the director employs a cheat to offer one final plot twist, do things start to unravel. While the film's final turn shines a different light on many of the events that preceded it, it also significantly reduces the complexity of Paula, transforming her into little more than a plot device.
Channing and Stiles are marvelous. Channing, a veteran performer who has had plenty of opportunities to shine, is completely at home as Julie, a woman who has become hard-as-nails to survive in a man's world. Stiles, an up-and-coming actress who is already known because of fine performances in pictures like Save the Last Dance and O, has no problem with the complexities and contradictions of Paula's character. The Business of Strangers is one of those films where the acting can either enhance or torpedo the storyline; Channing and Stiles ensure that the former is the case.
Disappointing though the conclusion of The Business of Strangers may be, it does little to blunt the film's overall impact. Stettner's screenplay still makes its point and there's plenty of material to ponder and discuss once the end credits have finished rolling.
© 2001 James Berardinelli