Movies - Kissing Jessica Stein

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Kissing Jessica Stein

	Movies - Kissing Jessica Stein

Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) is a U.S. independent romantic comedy starring and written by Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen, and directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. The movie is based on Lipschtick, a failed Broadway stage show.

Plot

Thirtysomething Jessica Stein (Westfeldt), a Jewish heterosexual journalist, is plagued by failed blind dates with men, and decides to answer a newspaper's 'lonely hearts' advert. The advert has been placed by 'lesbian-curious' Helen Cooper (Juergensen), a thirtysomething art gallerist who is dissatisfied by her meaningless sex with men.

The movie is set in New York, and deliberately has many elements in common with famous movies by Woody Allen such as Annie Hall and Manhattan.

Given some of the men she is shown to be test-dating at the start of the film, ranging from borderline gay to nerd, some would probably say that it's no surprise she'd want to fan out her prospects a little. But she's not interested until she hears a personals ad that sounds exactly like what she's looking for.

One problem: the ad was from a woman. But she's still interested, including with the prospect of trying something new. But even as nervous as she is about dating Helen, she realizes following a surprise kiss - hence the title - that even a different experience can be good.

Through the early part of their relationship, Jessica finds in Helen everything she'd dreamed of finding in a man. They are compatible, they like many but not all of the same things, and they are caring for one another. Even when Helen gets sick - which she says earlier in the film never happens to her - Jessica is there to care for her.

One of Jessica's struggles with her new-found bisexuality is with her family. Her mother tries to set her up, her grandmother always has problems with the men she sees, and her brother Dan is getting married. Because of how traditional her family is, Jessica's concerns start to rest on how her family would react if they learned she was dating a woman.

One of these struggles comes during a dinner to celebrate Dan's betrothal. Her mother had invited an IBM executive in hopes of setting him up with Jessica, despite the fact that Jessica doesn't like computers. Helen was also invited on the insistence of Jessica's mother, unbeknownst to all that Jessica was already dating Helen.

Helen and Jessica later get into a quarrel about Jessica's refusal to inform her family about their relationship, resulting in a tentative breakup. It isn't until later, as her brother's wedding is coming close, that her mother voices her approval by simply saying, "Helen is a good girl." This in mind, she immediately stops by Helen's place to invite her as her date to the wedding.

She becomes an immediate curiosity of the other women at her brother's wedding. It's also there that she gets a second surprise kiss, this one from ex-beau and current boss Josh (Scott Cohen).

Jessica and Helen move in together, but their relationship, while good in all other ways, suffers from lesbian bed death. The relationship falls apart and ends amidst a lot of Jessica's tears and Helen's realization that she wants more than Jessica is willing to offer. After moving beyond the heartbreak, Helen and Jessica remain good friends, and Jessica starts to show renewed interest in Josh at the end of the film, after both had left the firm they previously worked for.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Kissing Jessica Stein ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Kissing Jessica Stein; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay