B
Most past pictures centering on lesbian romance have been shrill, strident and dull. “Kissing Jessica Stein” succeeds by breaking the usual formula and creating interesting, likable characters not only in the leads but down through the supporting cast. Though it exhibits the unevenness typical of independent movies made on the fly, it emerges as an unexpectedly charming portrait of sexual experimentation and camaraderie among friends. Even viewers not ordinarily sympathetic to movies with gay themes should find it not just tolerable but positively winning.
The titular figure, played by co-writer Jennifer Westfeldt, is a straight New York working girl frustrated with her unsuccessful love life. Almost as a lark, she responds to a “women seeking women” classified and meets bisexual Helen Cooper (Westfeldt’s writing partner Heather Juergensen). Initially reluctant to take the relationship beyond the introduction stage, Jessica gradually grows closer and closer to Helen, though she’s nervous about making that known to her family, friends and co-workers.
It wouldn’t be fair to reveal too much about where the narrative goes from here, but it’s fair to say that the plot takes some unexpected turns and ends up in a surprising place. Ordinarily in this genre one can predict that the story will close either in simplistic happiness (the “out” scenario) or some form of gloomy tragedy. In this case, however, the outcome follows neither pattern; instead it has a complexity that’s both aesthetically pleasing and dramatically plausible.
The characters share that trait. Both Jessica and Helen are rounded individuals rather than stereotypes, and Westfeldt and Juergensen give them considerable subtlety and depth. What’s even more unusual, the supporting characters are complicated, too. Tovah Feldshuh is very appealing as Jessica’s mom, obviously a conservative Jewish mother but one who proves remarkably understanding of her daughter’s choices, as also is Jackie Hoffman as her match- making pal and colleague. Perhaps most remarkably, Jessica’s boss (and former romantic partner) Josh–precisely the kind of fellow who, in most pictures of this sort, would have been a cad, pure and simple–is portrayed here as a guy with insecurities of his own, and turns out quite differently from what one might have predicted. Scott Cohen plays him well, too.
As one might imagine, there are some flaws here. An early montage tracing Jessica’s string of awful dates has a sitcom feel about it; we’ve seen this before, and it wasn’t terribly impressive the first time around. (A few other moments in the picture have a similarly generic tone.) The overwhelmingly supportive reaction of virtually everybody to Jessica and Helen’s romance, moreover, is a bit hard to swallow; the setting is liberal New York City, to be sure, but even there the unvarying enthusiasm that greets their coupling has the taste of wishful thinking rather than reality.
These are minor points, however, in a picture that avoids the conventions of the genre and generally seems fresh and truthful. It also exudes a warmth that most viewers will appreciate, as well as providing some solid laughs as well. All in all, “Kissing Jessica Stein” is a feel-good movie that nonetheless retains a welcome touch of tartness. It’s not perfect, but it stands head and shoulders above the cookie-cutter romantic comedies that Hollywood produces with such depressing regularity.