Rating:
Director: Patrick Stettner
Producers: Susan A. Stover, Robert H. Nathan
Screenplay: Patrick Stettner
Director of Photography: Teo Maniaci
Cast: Stockard Channing, Julia Stiles, Frederick Weller
| THE BUSINESS OF STRANGERS Rating: Director: Patrick Stettner Producers: Susan A. Stover, Robert H. Nathan Screenplay: Patrick Stettner Director of Photography: Teo Maniaci Cast: Stockard Channing, Julia Stiles, Frederick Weller |
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Review by: Warren
Curry
1/31/02
Patrick Stettner's debut feature is bold, innovative and challenging. I should also mention that it's none too good. The writer/director deserves an A for effort, and conceptually he really is on to something here, but somewhere along the line this film spun out of his control. When all is said and done, The Business of Strangers isn't much more than a failed experiment with the audience serving as guinea pigs. Having said all that, is it confusing that I think Stettner is a filmmaker to most certainly keep an eye on? Allow me to elaborate.
The Business of Strangers flips the "corporate power struggle" film (I'm not sure if that qualifies as a genre, but I'm thinking of movies like Wall Street, Glengarry Glen Ross and In The Company of Men) on its head. American cinema has always viewed the battle in the workplace as a predominantly, if not, exclusively male struggle. The female voice has been a non-existent entity, but it comes through loud, if not completely clear, in this film. And it's too bad clarity wasn't found, because in a movie this talky that voice is subject to close scrutiny.
The story of the film is very basic. While on a business trip Julie Styron (Stockard Channing), a career corporate executive, is promoted to CEO of her company. This news comes as quite a surprise and is a sudden turn to what had started out as a potentially terrible day. A sales pitch Julie was conducting had failed, due to the tardy arrival of a new assistant at her company, Paula (Julia Stiles). The soon-to-be CEO first scolds and then threatens to fire the rattled youngster, eventually leaving her to fend for herself. Julie then meets with her headhunter (Frederick Weller), inquiring into the availability of a new job because of fear that the axe may be falling on her current position.
When Julie learns of the greatly unexpected news, she is left to celebrate alone in the bar of the airport hotel she is staying at. While nursing a drink, she notices the angry, bitter Paula sitting at a table by herself. Julie approaches the young woman, hoping to make amends for her earlier tirade. Paula is standoffish at first, but soon the women bond and indulge in a night of excess where they share moments of celebration, psychoanalysis and hostility.
Julie has spent so much of her life battling for respect and success in the business world that she has totally overlooked quality of life issues. The young Paula is the exact opposite; a girl who most likely had everything handed to her on a silver platter and is unable to appreciate her life's relative ease. She views Julie as an open book to read and enthusiastically vocalizes her opinions, trying vigorously to cut the powerful woman down to size. Paula pushes every button in hopes of finding Julie's sensitive spot, wanting to make a mockery of any corporate hierarchy that may exist.
The final two thirds of the film take place in various parts of the airport hotel, and the setting is one of the movie's strongest attributes. The flat compositions wring the faceless scenery for all its worth creating a sterile, surreal environment that almost plays like a character in itself. It provides the perfect surrounding for an examination of the moral codes of corporate America. Unfortunately, the execution of that examination is the film's undoing.
Stockard Channing does a fantastic job of displaying vulnerability and a world-weary quality, both elements having contributed to her successes and failures. Julia Stiles is a bit out of her depth at this point in her career as the antagonistic and mysterious Paula. She's just a brat, who spits out meaningless, cliché psychobabble as leisurely as she probably orders an espresso at Starbucks. And that's the The Business of Strangers most glaring problem while Julie is a well-developed character, she doesn't have an effective catalyst to cause her to reveal fears and self-doubt. We are given this information, but its context makes Julie seem weak and naive. I buy that a woman of her stature would have questions of stability and self-worth, but for the root of that problem to be exposed by an obnoxious, juvenile ingrate like Paula? Please
Patrick Stettner does a lot of things
right in this film; however, he gets the most important things
wrong. Quite simply, the atmosphere and ideas presented here are
in need of a stronger vehicle to make their point. Yet, the filmmaker's
strengths are tantalizing and make me quite intrigued to see what
he'll do next. In the end, the lasting impression of The Business
of Strangers is potential unfulfilled.
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