Kissing Jessica Stein Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)April 3rd, 2002
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Based on Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen's play Lipshtick, Kissing Jessica Stein proclaims itself to be "a fresh take on the subject of sex and the single girl." While it is refreshing to see a romantic comedy that doesn't feature Meg Ryan, Stein still falls prey to most of the typical rom-com trappings. Yeah, it's about a lesbian couple, but they're a really attractive lesbian couple. If this film was Kissing Shlomo Abromowitz, it would be getting a lot less attention and undoubtedly making the rounds on the gay and lesbian film festival circuit instead of receiving a theatrical release from a major distributor.
The titular Jessica (Westfeldt, from the first season of Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place) is a 28-year-old copy editor at a Manhattan-based newspaper who is tired of dating moronic men and even more tired of her stereotypical Jewish mother (Tovah Feldshuh) trying to steer her into a relationship with Any Available Jewish Male With Good Earning Potential. Trouble is, Jessica is just as picky with her men as she is grammar, though the montage of her horrible first dates (including both JM J. Bullock and a copy editor's worst nightmare - a guy who uses malapropisms like they're going out of business) indicates there might not be any good men left out there.
One day, as her co-workers are mocking the Woman-to-Woman personal ads in the Village Voice, Jessica overhears something from one of the notices that grabs her attention - a quote from German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Since she's having such a tough time finding Mr. Right, she decides to give Ms. Right a try, and, after some tentativeness, meets bi Helen Cooper (Juergensen), a stylish and sexy Chelsea art gallery manager who has had it with men that only seem to be interested in sex (we get her montage of scary phone messages from unattractive-sounding lesbians replying to her ad).
The next hour or so depicts Jessica slowly (very slowly) working up the courage to commence a physical relationship with Helen. There's definitely an attraction between the two, but Jessica is just way too uptight to let her guard down, and Helen, while patient, appears to be reaching the end of her rope with a girl she calls "the Jewish Sandra Dee." To make matters worse, Jessica refuses to acknowledge her new relationship to herself, let alone her friends and family. And throughout the whole thing, there's this weird sexual tension between Jessica and her boss/one-time boyfriend (Scott Cohen, Gilmore Girls).
This is all pretty enjoyable, especially the witty banter between the characters (though, strangely, the dialogue between Jessica and Helen is often the weakest in the film). Westfeldt's Jessica is charismatic in that half Woody Allen, half Lisa Kudrow, borderline-annoying-teetering-on-the-brink-of-becoming-unlikable kind of way. We can empathize with Jessica's spinelessness, as well as with the frustration Helen must be experiencing. Unfortunately, though, Stein's 94-minute running time seems much longer, because the whole thing comes to a screeching halt for the last 20 minutes. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth and practically makes you forget how enjoyable the first portion of the film was.
As a whole, Stein seems like the kind of sitcom pilot a network might produce but would never air (because folks in the Midwest are still a little leery of them dang homosexuals). Other than the gay aspect, the story is no different than the distributor-less Amy's Orgasm or Dinner and a Movie, and in terms of its portrayal of same-sex relationships, Stein is on par with the deplorable Will & Grace. The last big picture I can remember that prominently featured a lesbian character was Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy, which, while not really doing much to further the gay cause, did manage not to cop out at the end. Stein cowardly betrays the very message it seems to want to convey.
1:34 - R for sexual content and language
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