Julie Styron (Stockard Channing) is an accomplished career woman in her forties who has single mindedly given herself over to her job. She is always on time and prepared. It’s no wonder, then, that she she blows a fuse when Paula Murphy (Julia Stiles), an assistant bringing the audio-visuals for her presentation, arrives late after her plane was delayed. She fires Paula on the spot.
Even more irritating, Julie has heard rumors that she’s about to be sacked. She contacts Nick (Frederick Weller), a headhunter, and he presents her with several options. But dining with her boss that evening, Julie learns that he’s leaving the company and has appointed her CEO.
The sad state of Julie’s personal life is revealed when she has no one to celebrate with and only a secretary to call with her news. In a hotel bar, she bumps into Paula and apologizes for her angry and hasty behavior. They have a few drinks together and when Julie learns that Paula has no place to stay for the evening, she invites her to share her executive suite.
It doesn’t take Paula long to poke a few holes in Julie’s tough veneer. The younger woman claims that her real interest is fiction writing and not the corporate world. Paula soon has Julie reconsidering the prize position she has just won — is it really what she wants?
The feature debut of writer and director Patrick Stettner is a highly charged drama that contains some incisive insights about working women, the corporate world, power, and sexual politics. The nifty screenplay contains little gems such as the following exchange where Paula says: “I hate how hotel windows never open. They don’t want you to breathe real air.” Julie promptly adds: “Or jump.”
The real clash between the two women comes when Nick joins them for drinks and invites himself into Julie’s room later in the evening. Paula claims that he raped a girlfriend of hers years ago at Dartmouth and she wants revenge. This news draws out Julie’s man-hating side, which she has kept carefully under wraps. The rest of the evening contains further revelations about sexual politics.
In the end, Julie never really finds out whether Paula is an enemy or a friend. But she is forced to take a hard look at herself thanks to the shocking events of her long day’s journey into night. In the spiritual life, we are often compelled to accept difficult people as truth tellers who open our eyes to things we’ve avoided or covered up.
