Kissing Jessica Stein

Charles Hermann Wurmfeld, USA, 2001, 97 minutes

Jessica Stein is the embodiment of the stereotype of a single Jewish woman living in New York; successful, insecure, and desperately searching for a worthwhile man under the stern eye of a watchful matriarch. When she reads the perfect personal in the paper she jumps at the chance of meeting her ideal partner. Her only problem is that the advert is in the women seeking women section…

Jessica (Jennifer Westfeldt) is a successful copy-editor and aspiring artist with an address book full of failed attempts at husbandry, so when the chance to meet someone special springs up she jumps at it, hoping that she will be able to push aside her heterosexuality and use the power of her intense intellect to overcome this slight hurdle on the road to romantic bliss. Her ideal partner is the bohemian Helen Cooper (Heather Juergensen), a sexually precocious art gallery assistant, who has realised that men are no longer interesting for her and that it’s time to tackle a whole new gender. Unlike Jessica whose personal neuroses make her desperate to conceal her new found sexuality, Helen is equally emphatic about flaunting it and the abrasion between them is what makes this movie one of the funniest romantic comedies since Annie Hall.

Written by the two leads, who also co-produced the film which is adapted from Lipschtick, their off-Broadway play, Kissing Jessica Stein is all about the conditions of modern living in New York, but it also resonates with anyone who has felt that they’ll never find the right person, or has had to deal with an unapproachable family. Almost the antithesis of movies like Chasing Amy, Kissing Jessica Stein involves lesbianism in an adult and entertaining way and manages to do so without preaching or antagonising.

Don’t go to see it as a great lesbian movie, which it is, go and see it because it is the best romantic comedy released in the last five years.

Review by George Williamson
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2004