I love this movie so much

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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.

You get bad movies, like Johnny Mnemonic, which nobody in all seriousness is ever going to take seriously.What makes a movie like Business of Strangers worse, is that people actually do take this piece of pretentious drivel seriously.So what does this movie have going for itself?The deep myriads of complexities and frustrations of corporate women living in a man's world. The delicate nuances of female relationships. Serious undertones of oppression and rape.All sounds pretty good. Unfortunately this is all irrelevant. This is because the acting is so flat, the script so vague, the directing so lame, the backdrop so bleak, the context so contrived that the viewer is left thoroughly uncaptivated after approximately 10 minutes.To sit through the entirety of this movie is an exercise in sheer willpower.Julia Stiles's performance is so pathetically one dimensional (usual teen angst crap that she always does, eg 10 things, Save the last dance, ad nauseous). I vow never to watch another Julia Stiles movie again. As for Stockard Channing, I like her in West Wing but dunno... this movie just sucked so much that she just gets brought down with it.How can people actually compare this with "In the company of men" on an EQUAL footing? I'd like to point out the fundamental difference between the two movies. ITCOF is actually good, while TBUS is absolute drivel.Do yourself a favour and steer clear of this painfully painfully bad experience.In case you did have the complete and utter misfortune to watch TBUS, take consolation and solace from this comment that you are not alone.

Julie Styron (Stockard Channing) suspects she may be getting fired and hires headhunter Nick Harris (Fred Weller). She fires new assistant Paula Murphy (Julia Stiles). She is surprised when she is promoted to CEO. They later run into each other at a bar. They are joined by Nick when Paula reveals a shocking story to Julie.You should be able to see the ending coming a mile away. You know exactly the big reveal as soon as the "story" unfolds. It could've been interesting if something REAL edgy happens, but they might as well have a sing-along for the climax. Stockard Channing plays a smart, hard-nose executive, but couldn't ask the right questions to the guy? She's smart enough to run a multi-million dollar company, but so stupid she buys into the story. It's too bad. It has a good premise.

If this is supposed to be a turn on the usual men-exploiting-women movie, then congrats to all concerned, its great to know that the playing field is now equal.It started off great, it really did. The cinematography is remarkable and I am assuming there was not a gigantic budget, but you'd never know it by what is onscreen - the 'look' of the movie is also terrific. It has a certain feel to it - I give it that much credit gladly.But then you get to the characters and the screenplay and the actual words that are said and it all goes into the garbage can very fast. I didn't buy either womans' motivation for anything. Is the woman Julia Stiles plays a psychopath, a liar, a spoiled brat or just bored? Is the woman Stockard Channing plays an idiot, a moron or just bored? For Stiles to accuse Frederick Weller of rape/sexual abuse just for the fun of it is an insult to women and men worldwide who have actually suffered such abuse. I like Weller and watched this originally to see him. I watched it again to make sure I hated it as much as I did the first time, and I did. 3/10 and that's generous on my part.