The Games People Play

While The Business of Strangers is by no means a thoroughly satisfying film (sort of how life is never always completely satisfying), it certainly makes for nearly an hour and a half of compelling, thought-provoking fare. The always-superb Stockard Channing is at her coiled best, never really seeming relaxed even when she's supposedly tanked on scotch. An Oscar-worthy performance, even when we're not completely sure of her motivations - although this is a good thing here, because SHE's not so sure about what the heck she's doing either, even though she's supposedly so in control.

And Julia Stiles shines here too, investing her character of Paula with ambiguity galore - in the course of the film she exhibits confusion, rage, sadness, cruelty, disgust and much more -- sometimes all in the same scene.

There are no simple explanations here, no easy and tidy ending to this tale (just like in life - 'the messiness of life,' Paula alludes to early in the film). Every day people act out neurotic behavior (which has nothing to do with their daily lives but rather with things that have happened in their pasts), and every day people who are supposedly in control desperately long for a dominatrix to work them over for a few hours a week. Julie 'hires' Paula to do that for her in this movie, and by the end, after all the mind games have been played and the dust settles, you're not sure what to think, which is also the way life does us for the most part.