Business of Strangers
dir. Stettner
Opens Fri Dec 14
Cinema 21

There's a reason that all the films Julia Stiles has made so far involve very little acting, and that's because she can't act. Her latest movie, Business of Strangers, is a subtle exploration into the relationship between two women, Julie (Stockard Channing) and Paula (Julia Stiles), and most of the movie features the two women talking--which is why Stiles' inability to act becomes such a problem. Unlike her recent movies, such as O and Save the Last Dance, there are no dance or sex scenes for Julia to fall back on. Just shot after shot of conversations between Julie and Paula.

The first of these conversations takes place when the two meet for the first time. Stiles is hired as Channing's assistant, but she's late for their first meeting because of a delayed flight. Thanks to Stile's tardiness, Channing is humiliated in front of others, and when Stiles finally does arrive--45 minutes late--Channing fires her on the spot.

But that happens before Channing finds out that she has just been promoted to CEO of the company. After this happens, she's feeling generous and after randomly running into Stiles at a bar, impulsively rehires her. Thus, the love/hate dynamic is established between the two women. Finding themselves trapped in the same town for 24 hours while they wait for their flight, they decide to hang out, get drunk, work out, and seduce men.

Luckily, the writing of this movie saves the day, or at least partially. Had Stiles shown a shred of acting ability, the film could have been great. Stockard Channing is adequate in her role, and the conversations between the two women build in momentum and depth, exposing the mutual misery of their lives.

Channing is miserable because she's had to sacrifice nearly her entire life to become a CEO. She has no friends, no husband, no children, and no joy. Likewise, Stiles is both bitter about having to work and envious of the power that Channing holds because she does work. What these women both share is a disdain for men and a mutual feeling that the actions of men are somehow at the root of their problem. They decide to do something about this.

So they drug a guy they meet in the bar--someone that Channing knows, named TK. Coincidentally, Stiles says she has a "friend," who tk raped. I won't go into what they do to him, but believe me, it's not nice. I wouldn't want it done to me.

The climax of the movie is not so much in what they do to the man, but the interaction between them as they do it, and it is here that Stiles really fails. Had she spoken her lines with an ounce of conviction (she sounds, literally, like she's reading them aloud), one might have sympathized with both her and Channing, which seems to be the writer's intention. The camera lingers on the faces of the two women as they alternatively cry, laugh, and almost kiss. But instead of having any emotional pull, Julia's flatness leaks into every part of the movie, eventually coming across as unbelievable. Besides the poor guy who gets victimized, I didn't particularly care about anyone's well being--and he was a rapist!

This should be a lesson about what happens when bad actors try to do arty movies: Disaster. Julia Stiles should stick to what she does best: Nothing.