The Business of Strangers

Drink and a mutual fascination soften the initial antipathy between tough middle-aged exec Julie (Channing, excellent) and her her sour underling Paula (Stiles) as they while away a few hours enjoying the sterile comforts of an airport hotel. Tensions resurface with the arrival of headhunter Nick (Weller), one of Julie's associates, whom Paula alleges is a rapist from her past. What to think? He's shifty, she's manipulative. There's no dreary vying for sexual attention, however; first-time writer/director Stettner immediately puts the headhunter into a drug-induced coma, leaving his female companions to play out a taut generational power game after scrawling obscenities over every inch of his body. What have they both come to? Intelligently scripted and thoroughly absorbing.