Review of Business Of Strangers, The

Introduction

The Business of Strangers is another of those films that I`d heard nothing about until it dropped through my letterbox and into my DVD player. It stars the slightly oddly named Stockard Channing, who will probably only be known to you from Grease or The West Wing. The other lead is Julia Stiles, and the two are thrown together by circumstances - a pair of "road warriors" waiting around for their next delayed flight after a meeting. A stereotypically slimy headhunter crosses their path and regrets it later.

There`s not much more to the basic plot other than the brief outline up above - to delve any deeper would spoil it too much for potential viewers.

Video

A 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, which wavers around average and above average. It`s free from dust and dirt but it often has a subdued and dull look about it - some of that is probably intentional, but some of it seems not to be. There`s not a lot else to say about it.

Audio

Just a DD2.0 stereo soundtrack, which seems adequate as the film is almost totally dialogue based. However a DD5.1 soundtrack exists as it appears on a region 1 DVD of the film - and it is better according to reports.

What we get here does its job well enough, with dialogue coming across nicely and the American Beauty style Xylophone/Vibraphone soundtrack sounding fine. It`s just annoying to note that something better exists elsewhere.

Features

Just a trailer for the film and some for other Momentum DVDs.

Conclusion

A below average film on a very average DVD. The 2 leads occupy the screen for almost the entire length of the film, and if the story was better then this would be a good thing. But it plods its way through some predictable twists and turns until it runs out of steam and can`t manage to reach a decent ending. Instead it ends up leaving every single question that it has asked unanswered - and in this film that just won`t do.

After you`ve sat through every minute of it you want some payback for your patience - but you just don`t get it.

The presentation is average - reasonable transfer, reasonable sound and a total lack of extras. If you really want to check this one out (and I`m not sure why), then it`s just for rental only.