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Business of Strangers, The
IFC Films


4.4

based on 30 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 7 votes
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FILM:

The Night Listener

MPAA RATING: R for strong language and some sexuality

Starring Stockard Channing, Julia Stiles, Fred Weller, Mary Testa, Jack Hallett, and Marcus Giamatti

A drama about a corporate climber (Channing) and her new assistant (Stiles) - stuck overnight in an airport hotel, locked in a subtle game of control and manipulation. (IFC Films)

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Patrick Stettner
DIRECTED BY:	Patrick Stettner
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 6, 2002 Video: August 6, 2002 Theatrical: December 7, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	84 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A maliciously funny and keenly observant movie -- director-writer Patrick Stettner makes a potent feature debut -- that serves its humor dark and without artificial sweeteners.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

I'm not generally a huge fan of movies with two-or three-person casts -- they tend to resemble filmed plays -- but The Business of Strangers is a knockout.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Intriguingly puts two distinct, strong women together as if to pose the question, just what is a strong woman? By the film's end, that question is tough to answer.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Looking back at the film, I don't buy all this, but no matter; Channing is so stormy, so keen to unleash her resentments, that for an hour or so you do believe in Julie. [17 Dec 2001, p.98]

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Mr. Stettner has a serious subject here -- how the hurts that women suffer at the hands of men can be internalized more deeply than the victims know -- and his film is graced with a stunning performance by Ms. Channing.

Variety David Rooney

While it could have used a punchier final act that distilled its themes more cogently and conclusively, this intelligently scripted drama about power and its many channels nonetheless delivers thanks to Stettner's stylish visual sense and, most of all, to the smart, commanding performances of leads Stockard Channing and Julia Stiles.

New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo

It's a pleasure to watch these two superb actresses circle and attack, conspire and conflict in the corporate shark tank, and it's just as profound a pleasure to behold a talented new filmmaker who's managed to succeed his first time out.

Film Threat Rich Cline

This is a stunning examination of issues of doubt and control, as well as a cracking good little thriller.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

With an intensity that few movies have mustered, The Business of Strangers makes you feel the acute loneliness of it all.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Crisp and provocative, and no small amount of its pleasure derives from Channing's dazzling performance.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

The dynamic between Channing and Stiles is as compelling as a freeway wreck.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It's a good movie, and Channing and Stiles are the right choices for these roles. They zero in on each other like heat-seeking missiles.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Incorporates a range of genres -- black comedy, thriller, psychological drama -- and emerges more powerful for it.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Stettner approaches this material with a playwright's incisiveness and structural sense. His dialogue is cutting, often surprising.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

In The Business of Strangers the right words are hard to come by, but the truth of them -- and the lies -- cut to the quick.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The film raises many interesting questions about our own responses, but it may finally be too open-ended for its own good.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

After an hour of brilliant, bitchy dialogue and deceit, it simply runs out of energy; or possibly the budget ran out.

TV Guide Ken Fox

One is left with an unsettling ambivalence about the night's awful events -- there are no absolute villains here, just as there are no total victims -- and much of the credit is due to the performances.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

None of this detracts, however, from the terrific piss-and-merlot performances of Channing and Stiles, or from the committed participation of Frederick Weller as a Neil LaBute-era businessman caught in the lounge between two she-devils disguised as businesswomen.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Plays largely like a performer's showpiece, with all the showboating and not so surprising character twists that entails, but Stettner comes out the other end with a pleasantly modest and satisfying revelation.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Isn't much more than ''Baise-Moi'' in business suits as they deconstruct sisterhood with an expense account, but their duets sizzle.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Even though The Business of Strangers loses its nerve in the third act -- you'll wish Stettner had dared to push things further.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

You know the line about paying to hear a great actor read a phonebook? I'd pay to see Channing just leaf through one.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

This is a movie that really has little to offer but performances and ideas. For a while, that's enough.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

The Business of Strangers goes too far in dramatizing Julie's primal, Paula-fied surge of female fury, and the script finally mistakes respectful ambiguity for vaporous drift.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

Stettner's vision of both women lacks fullness, relying on stereotypes of feminine strength and vulnerability.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Try to imagine "In the Company of Men" with a feminist twist and you'll have the gist of this fervently acted, ultimately unconvincing drama.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Channing's formidably good -- a career woman in extremis -- but the movie, which was written and directed by Patrick Stettner, otherwise unfortunately resembles a product of the Neil LaBute Finishing School.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

A claustrophobic psychodrama.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Stettner must be one of the luckiest and unluckiest debut directors in years, blessed with actors who both take the focus away from his limitations and wind up shining a spotlight on them.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.4 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it a 7:
Having seen Julia Stiles this past movie season; fly to Denmark ("The Prince & Me"), give up law school ("Mona Lisa Smile"), and cry ("The Bourne Supremacy"), it was a blast to see her carriage of preternatural intelligence used for psychological terrorism, instead of the Princeton tigeress' recent tendency to deny the type-A in those widowy black eyes in a pair of reactionary films. There's a scene in a crowded elevator full of men she shares with Stockard Channing (Julie) that's worth the price of admission. Paula (Stiles) recruits Julie into her game of invention, and the way Channing switches from victim to participant without batting an eyelid, your hopes are raised that "The Business of Strangers" will go somewhere satisfying, because it's goddamn funny, and the two actresses, goddamn brilliant. When "The Business of Strangers" moves into darker territory, we should be relieved, since a film about female bonding could be a drag. But Stiles and Channing have such an invigorating rapport, we're not ready for Paula's "performance nihilism" on a male body, which is an ugly spectacle even before the truth comes out. After the two women are established as interesting, writer/director Patrick Stettner has to prove he's interesting, too.

Angie B. gave it a 1:
This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I'm not ever that harsh on ratings, but this movie surpassed all of my expectations. Hollow characters, awful dialouge, poor acting (sorry), idiotic premise. It was just plain awful.

Steve A. gave it a 2:
Slow, characters without charm and a preposterous plot. Depressing and vacuous. A film so contrieved and pretentious only a critic could like it.

Alan H. gave it a 2:
Boring. Badly written. Predictable.

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Business of Strangers, The IFC Films

Business of Strangers, The
IFC Films