Stockard Channing and Julia Styles deserve Oscars for this would-be psycho thriller which, as others stated, just built you up, just to let you down. It could have been more mind bending if the surprise element of Julia's true character revealed, had been more thoroughly explored rather than teasing us for so long, with no shock value at the end. Doesn't have to be blood and gore, but certainly some kind of "consequence" for the malicious actions of both women against an "innocent" man besides leaving us with the proverbial thought, 'Oh, maybe I really don't want this job...I should get a life.' Still, for all the potential 'could've beens', I enjoyed the movie.

I gave this film 8 out of 10 points, but I automatically give any film with Julia Stiles at least a 7. She is always sultry and seductive and here is no exception. She is the Lauren Bacall of our time.Anyways, I have to agree with those that saw this as a taunt female thriller of the "Single White Female" variety. I have to disagree that the ending is unsatisfactory in comparison to that movie. This movie simply moves back into a realistic mode, instead of going for a psycho-bloodbath and gore finish.The movie really reminded me of David Mamet's writing. It is the surprise revelations about the characters that happen every couple of minutes that keep you fascinated throughout. That you have two great actresses playing here keeps things together.I found it filled with enough fun and unexpected moments to recommend it. It doesn't make you jump to the edge of your seat, but it does make you lean forward a few times.

I have always liked Stockard Channing, and recently have come to respect Julia Stiles and her choice of roles a great deal. So I was expecting a highly poignant movie here; a deep character study. I didn't get that. These characters, being from the corporate world, are shallow and self-centered, and Stiles' character is distinctly unlikeable. On the other hand, it does show just what such people are like, and how the events depicted here are par for the course in that world.I disagree with a previous poster who said that Nick was the one character to come out of this story unscathed and with his innocence intact. Rather, his lack of a reaction to what they did to him demonstrates that this kind of thing is pretty much business as usual for him. He may have raped someone, and he isn't even shaken up about it. Shows what kind of a hardened, unscrupulous person life in the corporate stratosphere has made him. He's not exactly an angel. Slippery as an eel indeed.Also, the "lesbian themes" that seem to be so played up in the hype and discussion of this movie are hardly even there. There are some instances of innuendo, but nothing material. Which I'm not complaining about, I'm just saying it. If you watch this movie for the sake of that (which I didn't), you'll be let down.As it was, I was let down anyway, as the movie didn't really go anywhere or resolve anything.My rating: 5 out of 10.

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.