Review of Kissing Jessica Stein (2002) by Alison O — 07 Dec 2005

Best in Show: Heather Westfeldt.

One for the future: Heather Westfeldt.

Stand-out scene: Marriage proposal.

Brainer or no-brainer: Brainer.

Stands up to one viewing or repeated?: One.

DVD commentary any good?:

The imdb has the fascinating story behind the making of this movie. Aspiring actresses Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen both attended the same writers' boot camp in an attempt to get their careers off the ground. Together, they wrote a series of stage vignettes called "Lipschtick" one of which was about two straight women who decide to "give by a try." Encouraged to develop that segment for a full screenplay the ensuing project rested in development hell for two years so the two actresses decided to buy back the rights to the movie and bring it to the screen themselves. The end result is a talky, interesting effort that deals with the subject of bisexuality in an adult and intelligent manner. Jessica Stein (Westfeldt) is a New York journalist who has had a series of failed relationships with men. After a few disastrous blind dates she spots a literary quote in the personal ads and decides to reply even though it was posted by a woman. The womens' families and friends add colour and humour to the story and this chattering classes' exercise in verbiosity won't be to everyone's tastes. As a window into an unfamiliar world this serves its purpose and both actresses must be applauded for their tenacity in seeing this project through to its conclusion. As was the case with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's foray into screenwriting, nothing has been heard from this duo since, which is a loss to intelligent film-making.