"The Business of Stragers" an analyisis of the film
...ing, “That’s too bad,”. Paula is forcing Julie to examine her situation and what her life has all been worth. Could this businesswoman who has worked so hard to get to the top possibly not be as happy as she thought. We see that Julie may be successful according to corporate standards but she is obviously not happy with her life. Not only is Paula making Julie become aware of her unhappiness Julie is also facing menopause. Her body is changing and she feels as if she has lost control. “It was like one day decided to change who I was as person with out even asking,” says Julie to Paula when she asks how her first hot flash felt. We see the successful businesswoman, Julie, who has made it to the top of the ladder and after a long and hard climb she is questioning if she made the right choices. Maybe she was to get married and have children and be a mother. Her final comment at the end of the film is sums up what is running through her head, “Maybe I should just quit, but I can’t.” She knows that this job is every thing that she is and if she were to quit she would not have anything left. She has worked so hard and come so far already she would lose everything if she quit now. Similarly, in the film “Fight Club”, Jack is struggling with the same issue of happiness. In the film we see the character Jack go through this process of trying to find some sort of meaning in his life. We observe Jack attending support groups to fight his insomnia. We also see Jack filling his emptiness with material goods. These material things make him feel complete. Having the couch that matches the love seat and the coffee table some how fills a void within us. It gives us comfort to know that our house looks designed. After all of Jack’s possessions are destroyed when his apartment blows up he is lost. He has no idea where to go or who to call. Jack is left with nothing and searching for a new way to fill the incompletion within him. Everything that Jack is was destroyed. It was as if he had been destroyed as a person. Tyler, Jack’s second personality, is everything that Jack is not. Jack, as Tyler, begins the underground “Fight Club”. “Fight Club” and Tyler are Jack’s new ways of dealing with his emptiness. We are aware of Tyler’s motives as to why he is helping Jack try to figure out his unhappiness, because Jack is Tyler. Jack also, like Julie, has a good job and seems to be very successful but we can see he is not happy. In “The Business of Strangers” we do not get to see and experience how Julie is going to deal with this unhappiness that she has finally discovered as we do with Jack’s character in “Fight Club”. Tyler is taking action with Jack in trying to give Jack a way to deal with his unhappiness. At first we she Tyler forcing Jack to look at his life and realize how unhappy he is then we see the action. Tyler offers a solution to Jack with “Project Mayhem”. Paula, however, does not offer a solution to Julie on how to deal with her unhappiness. Paula just makes Julie more aware of her unhappiness. What we do see in both films is an analytical look at what it means to be happy in this society. We are all constantly searching for things that make us happy in this life. We study at a University hoping to climb that ladder of success, because we believe once we get to the top of the ladder we will be happy. After watching the films “The Business of Strangers” and “Fight Club” I do not think that anyone, even if they are the most successful person is completely happy with everything in their life. There are two ways you can look at dealing with realization of this unhappiness. You can ...