In the 1988 movie Working Girl, Sigourney Weaver has a dramatic entrance to a boardroom setting complete with a bevy of men in grey three-piece suits and heavy mahogany paneling. Her hair is 80s height, her attire speaks a woman of means, and her use of crutches is both intimidating and explanatory as to why she wasn’t invited to the meeting. Weaver’s urgency to attend is due to, as she announces, “Gentlemen, we have a deal on the table.”
The coming together of parties to a transaction is often featured in cinema in this high-drama boardroom fashion. Tension is integral to two parties, each feeling the other is getting the best of them, and they stand off with their legal eagles at hand. Both benefit from the trade, or they would not be present. The pressure to settle is high.
Weaver is there to claim her stake in the transaction, as there are many participants in the successful execution of a trade. The close of deal-making is when each party comes away with either what they’ve given or what they’ve gotten. There is a settling of accounts.
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