Sex and the single girl gets a fresh new spin in this “very funny movie”! (Joel Siegel, Good morning America) Fed up with her fruitless search for “Mr. Right” and tired of blind dates from hell, attractive journalist Jessica Stein whimsically responds to a classified ad – from Helen! Making and breaking new rules of dating as they go, the two women muddle through an earnest but hilarious courtship that blurs the lines between friendship and romantic love in this “smashing romantic comedy” (Rolling Stone)Blessed by casual charm and sophisticated wit, Kissing Jessica Stein does for same-sex romance what Annie Hall did for straight neurotics. The influence of Woody Allen is keenly felt on this resourceful New York comedy (expanded from an off-Broadway play), especially when cowriter and costar Jennifer Westfeldt channels Diane Keaton’s “la-di-da” nervousness as Jessica Stein, a romantically frustrated heterosexual copyeditor who impulsively answers a personal ad from a bisexual woman. Helen (cowriter Heather Juergensen) is as relaxed about lesbian love as Jessica is anxious, but they click as lovers, and so does the movie’s delightful exploration of their budding relationship, which is further complicated by Jessica’s yenta-like mother (Tovah Feldshuh) and a former boyfriend (Scott Cohen) who’s now Jessica’s boss. While acknowledging the serious repercussions of Jessica’s bisexual flirtation, Kissing Jessica Stein takes its characters on a smart, compassionate journey of self-discovery that’s as truthfully observant as it is gently entertaining. –Jeff Shannon
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April 10, 2008
#1
It’s funny because it’s so intimate.
‘It’s so intimate because I think people think like this.
I think people think like this because it’s so real.
It’s so real because the camera shakes, I’ve heard of Nobu, and I now think like this.
I now think like this because I’m sexually dysfunctional.
I’m sexually dysfunctional because the movie told me to be….
…and I’m an idiot!’
April 10, 2008
#2
I just saw this movie, and it seems it was made to make straight men look like a-holes, but in a “nice” way. Every guy in this movie is either portrayed as angry, or neurotic and clueless about women. Furthermore, the men who are portrayed in a positive light are all gay. I mean, c’mon. I bet the directors and producers all hate men, even if they would not admit it openly. A straight, jewish, New York girl only runs into clueless, idiot straight guys, and as a result, has to turn to lesbianism for fullfillment. Please. Just another example of how much of the entertainment industry is run by women for women, even if its not openly expressed. I guess in a perfect Hollywood world, all the men would be gay and dickless, and talk all day about interior decorating and high art. Sorry, 2 stars for effort, but its all a subtle form of male-bashing. Womens rights? What about mens rights?
April 10, 2008
#3
The storyline might have been interesting but the actresses in the movie just doesn’t fit it. I think that they should have chosen a better looking celebrity. No offense but the actress who played as Jessica just doesn’t have the kind of face that fits the character. I did not want to finish the whole movie because of this.
April 10, 2008
#4
I recall a girl I used to know from work who once said to me, in the height of her disgust over dating, that she knew of a lesbian who used to sleep with men occasionally just to remember how bad it was. The girl thought this a great story. It is with sentiments like hers in mind that “Kissing Jessica Stein” was written and made into a motion picture. “Lesbian chic” is all the rage today and vengence towards men is an inherent feature of this fad.
Lesbianism is propagandized into being a nuclear option to be used against men, and the relationship that we are privy to in this film is drawn clearly to juxtapose men with women as romantic partners. We find (surprise!) that men are inferior in comparison. An important question that never arises is how a ship can sail with two captains or how a song can simultaneously feature two soloists. “Viva la diffrence” is a thing of the past and not something to be tolerated any longer today.
In this film, we find, much to Jessica’s surprise, that society as a whole admires women who sleep with women. I think that’s quite accurate. Homosexuality in America is not only accepted; it is celebrated. When Jessica informs her friend about the same sex affair she has embarked upon, she hears not condemnation but that her friend is “impressed” as she repeats, “Wow! Wow! Wow!” The friend is obsessed with the lesbianic mechanics and wants to know what it’s like and how the sex is better than it is with men. What else would the conformists say nowadays? Post sexual revolution, experimentation always equates with enlightenment
At a wedding, a crowd gathers around Jessica’s lover, Helen, and people can’t wait to hear all about their exciting and new Feng Shui lifestyle.
From the outset, we see that an anti-male stance will be taken in all of what will follow. The camera provides us with a montage of five “failed” dates that Jessica has gone on. The men portrayed in the opening sequence are strawmen, meaning, no such men actually exist or, if they do, they are statistical aberrations of the greater whole. They are the subject of jeering but, inconveniently, they are not representative in the least.
A straight-up, unimaginative view of men is shared with the audience. The only males depicted sympathetically are non-white, gay, or whimps. Our alleged sexual inadequacy is an important theme of this film. A perfect example of this comes when Helen, stares longingly at a matchbox with Jessica’s number on it while a lover (one of many) performs oral sex on her. In another scene, two guys approach them while they’re at dinner offering to buy them drinks. The fellows, despite being 40, are immature jugheads who use words like “double sexy” and love lesbians. Outside of pornographic websites, I sincerely doubt that they do. The real ones do not look or act like Jenna Jameson.
Jessica’s neurosis, alongside her repressed heterosexuality, is the enemy of this idyllic relationship, but the movie chooses to begin and end with fantasy. We see that men can forgive and forget everything, while friendships can remain strong despite past sexual entanglements. The climax we are given turns out not to be a climax but, instead, is a prelude to another climax that begins and ends in the last three minutes. Overall, set amidst an abysmal soundtrack, Kissing Jessica Stein is a poor movie from start to finish.
April 10, 2008
#5
Lifeless, predictable, trite, cliched, charmless, shallow, sloppy, not funny, maudlin, slow, uninspired…did I leave anything out? This was a huge disappointment. I didn’t laugh once. What was so funny? You could see the jokes coming a mile away (cliches breed more cliches). If this was an episode of Sex and the City, you’d say to yourself “wow, that was really weak..” But somehow independent films get a pass.