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The movie The Business of Strangers asks its audience to believe a number of rather implausible things: 1) that a tough-nosed, middle-aged businesswoman, who has just fired an underling she doesn't even know, would
then get rip-roaring drunk with that same employee the very same night; 2) that this partying would include speaking candidly about menopause and taking off each other's clothes in the hotel pool; 3) that the young
employee, now back in her boss's good graces, would talk frankly about watching pornography and steal medication from her boss's purse.

Fortunately for writer and director Patrick Stettner (in his feature debut), he has two great actresses to try to pull it off. Stockard Channing plays Julie Styron, the vice president of a tech firm that's just found out she's been promoted to C.E.O. Julia Stiles is Paula Murphy, the cavalier employee who's fired for being late to an important presentation. But when the two are stranded in a hotel bar, they strike up a conversation, and things progress from there.

Channing, who's one of the better actresses of her generation, is criminally under-used these days. I'd like to think that she's just picky, but her willingness to star in movies like Where the Heart Is and Practical Magic undermine that hope. Nonetheless, she's strong in whatever she's in, and she's fantastic in Business of Strangers. Able to make even the most ridiculous dialogue ring true, she almost carries the film.

Stiles, who's one of Hollywood's hot new ingenues, has a much easier time finding parts. So it's nice to see her try something adventurous like this little movie. She has a feral intensity to match Channing's chops, and
she's completely believable as a young nihilist.

Unfortunately, the movie's last half strains all credulity, as the two women decide to pick on a guy they know, and it leads to a wild confrontation. Despite Channing's best efforts, her character does too many things that don't match with what we know about her; and the young Paula becomes merely a plot device. Stettner, who's too fond of camera pans, either needed someone else to shoot his film or at least someone to help him whip the script into shape. "I like the sloppiness of real life," Paula says early in the movie, but real life is never as sloppy as this.   

J. Robert Parks 12/18/2001