By PETER CALDER
Surgically cool and razor-sharp, this small and clammy chamber piece is at once eerily theatrical and intensely cinematic and has a payoff so wicked it hits the solar plexus rather than the cerebral cortex.
It's set in the airless and sterile surrounds of an airport and hotel in an
anonymous city where Julie Styron (Channing), a hotshot computer-system saleswoman, is between flights making a big sales pitch. But the sale is ruined by the late arrival of a junior assistant Paula (Stiles) with important audio visuals.
It's not her fault but Julie sacks her - tellingly, she does so by a phone call made in Paula's hearing - but soon after, she's stunned by some unexpected news from head office.
Meeting Paula in the hotel bar, she tries to mend fences and learns something disturbing about a sleekly plausible corporate headhunter (Weller) who's been trying to lure her to another executive position.
The story peels back layer by layer as it creeps to its shocking climax but Stettner keeps a firm grip on things and his sense of control only heightens the rigidly repressed fury of Channing's dazzling performance. Much of her work is on the phone - when we meet her she is talking on her mobile to a PA we never see, she leaves messages for loved ones, she even calls her analyst for her weekly appointment and Stettner keeps bringing the camera in close to show the isolation and desperate anxiety beneath the aggressive facade.
Stiles - the underage object of Alec Baldwin's affection in David Mamet's State and Main - is an excellent foil for the older woman: her callow arrogance is inscrutable but full of hints that all is not what it seems and her Paula expertly plays on Julie's insecurities. Weller, meanwhile, makes much of a thankless role which comes into focus only at the end.
In the end, the film's strength contains its flaw: it's almost too controlled and Stettner, a perceptive director who has cast brilliantly, doesn't trust his actors as much as he should have. But it's smart and chilling, and if you work in an office, you'll never look at your colleagues the same way again.
Cast: Stockard Channing, Julia Stiles, Fred Weller
Director: Patrick Stettner
Running time: 83 mins
Rating: R16 (contains offensive language, sexual themes)
Screening: Rialto from Thursday.
By PETER CALDER
Surgically cool and razor-sharp, this small and clammy chamber piece is at once eerily theatrical and intensely cinematic and has a payoff so wicked it hits the solar plexus rather than the cerebral cortex.
It's set in the airless and sterile surrounds of an airport and hotel in an
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