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Two
women who couldn't be more different spend an evening together.
What will develop between them? A relationship? A friendship? Something
darker?
 Julie
Styron (Stockard Channing) is a stereotypical Boomer about to hit
the height of her career -- and her career is her life. She lives
her life on her phone, in airports and hotels. She has no friends,
no family. It hasn't been easy to get where she is. Even when she
gets great news, she has lost the ability feel the joy she deserves.
 Paula
Murphy (Julia Stiles) is a stereotypical X-er. She's tattooed. She
sees her job a "just a money job." She feels free to help herself
to whatever Julie has.
Both
women are alone in this film. Julie as the woman who has let nothing
stop her on her rise to the top. Paula sitting in a bar with a book,
or in the airport with her headphones on. In different ways, each
is the center of her own universe.  And
when the two separate universes come together, we may not get an
explosion, but the energy and destruction released will be tremendous,
not only on them, but on anyone in the area.
On
the day that Julie has fired Paula (whom she has just met), they
end up stuck in the same airport hotel due to canceled flights.
As they begin to interact with the help of a whole lot of scotch,
we follow them on a roller coaster of emotions. These two different
women alternate between a developing affection, disdain, sexual
tension, power dynamics, psychological manipulations, mother/daughter
bonding. And the roller coaster becomes very frightening with all
the dips and twists and turns.
 This
film gives some insight in the great gulf between these two generations
-- Boomers and X-ers in collision. But the interaction allows each
to see itself in a mirror. And both have some qualities to be celebrated.
And both have qualities that are not very pretty. We see the cost
of Julie's success -- isolation, emotional barrenness, a loss of
her own identity to her job. And Paula is adrift without future,
without compassion, without caring about anything or anyone.
 To
be sure, stereotypes never give a full picture of people, but they
are useful in this film to give us the chance to see the generations
in relationship to each other and in a very real way to see each
generation through the eyes of the other.
But
Business of Strangers is not just one generation's indictment of
the other -- rather it make us look at both with an understanding
that neither has really found the answer to life. And we begin to
discover that each generation its own set of demons to overcome.
 The
film is marked by excellent performances by both Channing and Stiles
(which could well be noticed by Academy voters). Director Patrick
Stetner makes the experience very up close and personal as befits
the intensity of the story; he doesn't allow us to back away from
the angst that dwells in both women and magnifies as they come together.
 I
would think Boomers and Xers might well understand the film in different
ways. It could be a learning experience to gather a few of each
generation and have them compare notes on how the film speaks of
them and to them.
CONTINUED
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