Avid Climber The Business of Strangers is about the world of those women jockeying their lives in the phallocentric spheres of our society. It's a great movie done with very little.The good. Simple yet very elegant mood and settings. Solid editing. Interesting, realistic, and straight forward story. Nicely put together characters who evolve before our eyes.The actors. In this production, we can see Julia Stiles starting to spread her wings and some of her potential. However, as much as I love her, Stockard Channing is the real star here. She portrays the power business woman, her struggle and her changes of mood, with incredible clarity.The bad. The emptiness of ordinary lives usually filled with glitz and details by Hollywood can be slightly disorienting here. I think it's perfect, but not for everyone.The ugly. Nothing.The result. Very low key character driven film. Don't expect a dazzling display, turn on your brain, and you won't be disappointed.

rjennica Stockard Channing and Julia Styles deserve Oscars for this would-be psycho thriller which, as others stated, just built you up, just to let you down. It could have been more mind bending if the surprise element of Julia's true character revealed, had been more thoroughly explored rather than teasing us for so long, with no shock value at the end. Doesn't have to be blood and gore, but certainly some kind of "consequence" for the malicious actions of both women against an "innocent" man besides leaving us with the proverbial thought, 'Oh, maybe I really don't want this job...I should get a life.' Still, for all the potential 'could've beens', I enjoyed the movie.

jeny1130 This film surprised me. I have always loved Stockard Chaning and felt she has truly been under rated her work is among the best. But Julia Stiles was great in this film beyond her usual. I like Julia Stiles don't get me wrong I have always thought she was a good actress but I have felt that she could be in better parts. Sometimes the teen theme is not always doing her justice. But this film was a great break for her. Good material and great chemistry. I loved her character she was raw and raunchy and you want to like her. And then you want to root for the both of them as they do things they know they are wrong and dangerous. And even though there are plot twists at the end you still have a liking for the characters and if you are a woman you can see yourself in them. The dilemma of personal and work fighting for which one to come first and the way that pain can slowly bubble up to the top from self abuse and abuse of others. That is what you see in these characters. They may act extremely but they are shown in a very human way. Chaning has some really great acting in this role her emotions are so big they almost pull you into the room with them. while this may not be the best film both of them have done it is a very good piece and it is well put together.A true character piece not flashy or full of special effects but full of raw and gritty emotions.

No_Miss The Business of Strangers is about a middle aged CEO Julie (Stockard Channing) who befriends and spends a night with a sadistic underling Paula (Julia Stiles). It's the old cliché: the criminal gives the successful non-criminal new insight about themselves by talking them into committing crimes. Usually this makes a good movie but in this case it's hard to believe someone as powerful as Channing's CEO would allow Paula to order them around. And Stiles character is not deep enough to believe she would be capable of such acts. Overall the movie misses the mark.