Sometimes the most cute, witty, hilarious and outstanding movies are not the ones with conventional storylines, they are the ones that take us to places we haven't been before, and then some. Kissing Jessica Stein is one of the most excellently written films released to theaters this year and extremely entertaining.
Kissing Jessica Stein is a movie about an incredibly neurotic Jewish single woman named Jessica (Jennifer Westfeldt), living in New York City. Her mother (Tovah Feldshuh) is constantly hounding her to find a good Jewish boy. And Jessica, who is copy-editor at a city newspaper does want to settle down and find the right guy, but she keeps going on date after date with Mr. Wrong. Her co-worker and best friend Joan (Jackie Hoffman) reads her a personals ad that stands out perfectly - but turns out to be for Female Seeking Female. The person who has placed the ad is Helen Cooper (Helen Juergensen), an assistant director of an art gallery. Helen is a mostly straight woman with three different male lovers who she saw depending on her mood. She longs for a steamy lesbian romance and what she ends up getting is a young female version of Woody Allen. Also in the story is Jessica's Editor, Josh Meyers (Scott Cohen), who also hounds her and is also an old college lover. He is her brother's former college roommate, and now her brother is getting married. The story revolves mostly around Jessica (who is terrified of sex with a woman) and how she is dealing with all of these things, and that makes for some of the more funny moments in the film, as Helen is a more cosmopolitan in your face direct opposite of Jessica's mousy neurotic self. I don't want to go into any more detail, but it is a girl meets girl story written with all of the complexities you can think of when the protagonist is not yet admittedly a lesbian.
The best thing about this film is the development of the characters, and the details in the story in terms of every single different thing these women must deal with from their families, friends, co-workers etc. It is a true to life display of how you cannot please any one group of people. There are many moments of absolute hilarity. This is a very adult film, and much of the subject matter and laughs is sexual in nature and that you need to be prepared for.
The background on this story is that the writers, Helen Juergensen and Jessica Westfeldt created these characters as part of an off-Broadway play that they were doing. They then wrote the story revolving around these central characters, Jessica and Helen. As they pitched the story around, they became convinced that no other actress could play these characters as well as themselves. Both main characters in this film are the writers of the movies. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon watch out!
This is a low budget independent film, and not all of the actors are professional and sometimes that shows in the film. Despite that, the hilarious and detailed story and strong characters make this film an enjoyable and entertaining experience.
Not for the closed minded, Kissing Jessica Stein is a romantic comedy for the next generation, and there is something in it for open-minded audiences straight and gay alike.
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