The Business of Strangers

Career woman Julie (Stockard Channing) is making city-to-city management sales pitches when she fires her new assistant Paula (Julia Stiles). She then receives word that her company’s CEO is flying out to see her. Figuring she is also being fired, Julie meets with headhunter Nick (Frederick Weller). As the story progresses, Julie and Paula reunite for a night of drinking and male bashing in which Nick becomes the target of an impulsive revenge plot. Channing’s performance is potent, and writer-director Patrick Stettner successfully conjures up the general bleakness and cannibalism of the corporate ladder climbing in a milieu in which “everybody eats shit.” It’s just a matter of to what degree.