Kissing Jessica Stein
**1/2
Cinema Releases - June 21, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. USA.
96 minutes. Directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. Written by Heather Juergensen,
Jennifer Westfeldt. Starring Jennifer Westfeldt, Heather Juergensen, Tovah
Feldshuh, Esther Wurmfeld, Ben Feldman, Robert Ari.
Jessica Stein is tired of trying to find the right
man. She's done the relationship thing, and found that it ends in bitterness;
she's done the singles thing, and found that it pairs her with dorks. Men
are either too camp, or too stupid, or too darned dorky.
Helen Cooper is tired of finding the right men.
She has a married guy for when she's feeling adventurous, a delivery boy
for when she's horny, a spare guy for when she's bored. "How about when you're
sick?" someone asks. "I don't get sick," she responds. Good system. But it's
time to try something new.
And so Jessica and Helen get together, in a
relationship that reminds me of Ali G's comment about "women who try a bit
of feminism at a party when they is drunk". The ladies are about the same
age, laugh at the same types of jokes, share affection for Rilke... and are
both curious.
"Kissing Jessica Stein" is a sunny
and sexy little comedy that stays true to the way its protagonists would
react in this experimental situation. Helen is hungry and adventurous throughout;
switching to the lesbian team doesn't curb her zesty appetites. Jessica finds
new layers of trepidation right after the obvious ones are
conquered.
The way these personalities complement each other
is interesting: Jessica (Heather Juergensen) is scatty and nervous, drifting
between half-sure defences of her thoughts and embarrassed moments in which
she rambles and lets her voice turn all Minnie Mouse. Helen (Jennifer Westfeldt)
has a controlled, provocative self-confidence -- she nudges and questions
with her eyes, slinks or shouts through situations depending on her mood,
and always keeps a reasonable degree of hold or control.
Juergensen and Westfeldt are lively in their roles;
they are not only the stars, but wrote the screenplay, and exude a charming
sense of enthusiasm. But "Kissing Jessica Stein" just never takes off --
remove the homosexual gimmick, and this is a soft little romantic comedy,
nothing very special, with all of the standard dilemmas and payoffs. Having
seen the film, I know no more about why heterosexuals are tempted to switch
teams than I did upon going in. There are a few nice lines on the subject
(Helen: "Woman are softer; they're less threatening," Jessica: "It's just...
unexpected,") but it's never communicated to us in a visceral way or even
through transcendent conversational riffs. There is a running gag about men
who are "sexy-ugly" (Mick Jagger and Harvey Keitel, for example), but it's
the kind of humour you can find in any episode of "Sex and the City". For
real perception, seek out "Annie Hall", or hell, look at old episodes of
"Seinfeld".
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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