The Business of Strangers is a difficult movie to critique. On one hand the character's that first-time director/screenwriter Patrick Stettner offer for our consideration are not easy characters to buy into. Though the two leads are played rather well by Julia Stiles and Stockard Channing - both of whom have a ball playing to this bizarre story. On the other hand because of the bizarre nature of the story and it's unpredictability (with the exception of the ending which you see coming for miles) it commands your attention. Some of the conversations I believe are purposely muffled so as to cause you to listen so carefully for hints that might offer a clue as to what might really be going on that you're liable to rupture something.

The film begins during a business trip that Channing is in the midst of and right away she begins receiving phonecalls that suggest there may be something about to hit the fan. Channing is a high-powered business executive hopping from city to city, giving software presentations to big corporations. We also get the impression that she is accustomed to spending her days competing in a man's world and her evenings in up-scale hotels, where she maintains her sanity with the help of scotch whiskey. Her performance is so fleshed and real that she gets it across to us without saying so that she spends alot of her Hotel-time thinking about her failed marriage and ruing her decision to forgo children in the interest of her career.

Her paranoia regarding this trip centers around the news that the C.E.O. of her company has called to announce his plans to meet her for dinner during before her return - which she interprets as a bad omen. Or as she says several times to her personal assistant over the phone - "this can't be good." Her shaky state of mind takes another hit as she botches an important presentation, due largely to the fact that she is supposed to have been met with a tech assistant with a flashy computer presentation. Julia Stiles is the tech assistant who fails to show up until the meeting is in the process of winding up. In her frazzled state she is more than harsh with Stiles and recommends to her superior in full earshot that she be fired immediately. Stiles (not the type to apologize for anything - particularly things that aren't her fault) is unfazed and recalcitrant calling Channing a "frigid Uber Frau" before she is left in the dust of the limo. (It is obvious from her body language that she is already having fun sinking her teeth into a role so much more meaty than she's used to.

Before long Channing is so convinced she's going to get the ax that she phones an old acquaintance who is a high-level head-hunter (Frederick Weller) to insure she already has a new job before she loses her old one. Cutting to the chase here, it turns out that Channing's C.E.O. wanted to meet with her because he was stepping down and wanted to offer her his job. This is Channing's best scene in the movie. She is able to convey everything from relief to gratitude, but there is a surprising absence of celebratory joy - which we sort of eventually figure out that this is because she has no one in her life any closer than her personal assistant with whom she can share her great news. About the biggest personal kick she gets out of it is by informing the Head-hunter (Weller) that she won't be needing his services after all.

Later that night rather than drinking alone in her room, she heads on down to the Hotel bar where she encounters Stiles. After a lengthy explanation and apology Stiles is willing to accept a drink on Channing's tab (a $40 dollar drink) and to begin a conversation. A conversation that takes them from Channing promising to see that Stiles isn't fired to offering to buy Stiles her own room for the night. After a few drinks in Channing's room they decide to go for a swim and during the crowded elevator ride down Channing realizes for the first time that she's tied into a strange fish. On the ride down in an elevator full of men Stiles decides to see what kind of sport Channing is and says something like "I'm sorry I reacted like that, I guess I just sort of freaked when I saw how big it was!" I've gotta be honest I've never done the strap-on thing before." Rather than blanching Channing takes the ball and carries it even further responding with, "do you think that it was because it was black?" To which Stiles responds "Are you accusing me of Prosthetic Penis prejudice." The long and short of it is they leave an elevator full of very entertained gentleman and come away with a newfound respect for each others intellect and potential for their friendship.

The plot leads us into much, much stranger territory that I'm not going to give you much more detail about. I will say that when Stiles meets Weller in the bar she asks alot of questions about him and before you know it she is telling a story about how he raped her best friend in college and that if he didn't recognize her - he certainly was doing a good job of faking it. "Then again that was ten years ago and he was faced . . ." To follow is a rather bizarre revenge scenario that takes Channing further into this amusing new friendship than she is comfortable with. There are parts of the film that are a little hard to swallow and the ending is so obvious that the audience could've probably shouted it out in unison. Still this is a film that does not bore you and you find yourself playing along with it's many improbable circumstances just because you don't want to ruin it for yourself. Is there lesbianism, even more bizarre goings-on? I'll never tell, but I'll give it a high enough grade to make you want to rent it so you can find out for yourself.