Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 11-March-07
Spoiler Rating: High

Kissing Jessica Stein (2002)

"Kissing Jessica Stein" is advertised as a romantic comedy and follows a lot of the genre's standards, with an attractive but unfulfilled heroine, a handful of witty sidekicks, a loving and comedic family, and a hip urban setting and soundtrack. (I don't even need to list the fabulous apartment.) Twenty-eight-year-old Jessica Stein (Jennifer Westfeldt) is a high-strung copy editor who won't attempt anything that might not be perfect and has therefore doomed herself to failure. As we see in an early montage, her hopes of finding a mate almost run dry after a series of dates in which the worst suitor calculates what she owes for dinner down to individual salad greens and the best tries to sound modest by admitting that he's "self-defecating." Then her quirky pal Joan (Jackie Hoffman) tries to set her up with a hunk who turns out to be taken, which occurs right in front of her snarky ex-boyfriend (Scott Cohen) who happens to be her boss. Fighting off desperation, Jessica takes an uncharacteristic risk by answering a personal ad which includes her favorite quote from Rilke. And that's where the movie bends the rules, for the soul mate she finds by taking this chance is a woman.

Yes, Jessica is heterosexual, and yes, she knows the writer of the ad is female, but her perfectionism defines love as a meeting of minds as well as bodies, and she isn't getting any younger. Besides, her first outing with Helen (Heather Juergensen) opens her eyes to the possibilities of being with someone who is as smart as she is but much less inhibited. The chemistry between the two women (who co-wrote the screenplay) is effortless and charming. Everything they do looks fun, from their girlish (and metaphorical) chat about applying lipstick to their hilarious progression into lesbian lovemaking. It's easy to root for them in their happy, surprising connection, particularly as the inevitable obstacle they must overcome seems realistic. This involves Jessica's embarrassment at admitting to her friends and family whom she's dating. Fortunately, her kibitzing but big-hearted mother (Tovah Feldshuh) points her in the right direction.

In the theater where I first saw the movie I overheard an apparently gay man expressing his indignation at how it implied that sexuality is a choice, and I was tempted to point out the error of his thinking. The uniqueness of "Kissing Jessica Stein" is not its girl-meets-girl variation on a theme but that it ultimately belongs less in the romantic comedy camp and more in the camp of stories about people meeting, improving each other's lives, and going their separate ways (which, as I've said before, is one of my favorite camps). The end of the picture, which is a tad rushed, refutes that fellow's claims with more realism and sends Jessica off to an unsettled but rosier future. To me that feels better than the pat conclusion of the average Hollywood romance. Jessica's story is about the process of finding yourself before looking for that significant someone else. As such it is both sweet and profound and rises above the norm.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.