THE BUSINESS OF STRANGERS

Year: 2001
USA: IFC Films
UK: Momentum
Cast: Stockard Channing, Julia Stiles, Fred Weller, Mary Testa, Jack Hallett, Marcus Giamatti, Buddy Fitzpatrick, Salem Ludwig, Shelagh Ratner
Director: Patrick Stettner
Country: USA
USA: 84 mins
UK: 83 mins
USA Rated: R for strong language and some sexuality
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language, sex and references to sexual violence
USA Release Date: 14 December 2001 (Limited Release - wider)
USA Release Date: 7 December 2001 (Limited Release - Los Angeles, New York and SanFrancisco)
UK Release Date: 3 May 2002


Synopsis

THE BUSINESS OF STRANGERS is a tightly drawn drama about a successful business woman and her new assistant stuck in an airport hotel locked in a game of power and control.

Julie Styron (Stockard Channing) thinks she is going to be fired, but instead discovers that she is being promoted to CEO. Trapped in an airport hotel, she wants to celebrate but finds only the company of her young assistant, Paula Murphy (Julia Stiles).

As the night progresses, the two women get to know each other. They flirt, they drink, they lie; personal flaws are revealed and exposed. But at the end of the night their relationship turns and becomes a complex battle of power, authority, and wit.

When they encounter an unsuspecting businessman (Frederick Weller) the stakes are raised and the night turns into a dangerous game of psychological cat-and-mouse.