Title: Kissing Jessica Stein (2001)
Director: Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
Actors: Jennifer Westfeldt, Heather Juergensen, Scott Cohen.
Run Time: 97 Min.


This may contain some slight spoilers.
Last week I saw a promo for KJS on TV. I heard a lot about it and wanted to see it. I was in luck, because the movie was being shown that same day.

The story goes out as follows: Helen is fed up with her love life. She is a successful art gallery manager and is having meaningless sex with 3 men. She needs something else. So she places an ad in the newspaper under the woman looking for a woman section.

Jessica Stein is an equally successful woman. She works as a copyright editor. She is single and her mom pressures her into getting a boyfriend. One day her friend is reading the ads in the paper out loud and comes across the ad Helen placed. Her ad starts with a Rilke quote. Jessica's attention is caught immediately, but is disappointed to find out it was placed by a woman.

Later, the thought of the ad keeps playing through her mind and she gives Helen a call. Helen is more than happy to meet her after being called by a bunch of sad women.

Almost immediately after stepping into the cafe and seeing Helen sit at a table Jessica changes her mind and leaves. But Helen sees it and is able to stop her. Helen persuades Jessica to go for a drink and the pair start to talk. It is evident that Jessica is uncomfortable around Helen, but it soon changes. They start to hang out more often and they eventually take it step by step, much to the annoyance of Helen. She, clearly, is more experienced than Jessica and is more comfortable with her sexuality.

Eventually Helen meets Jess' family and friends, but she introduces her as 'my friend Helen'. Helen and Jessica soon realize they want different things out of the relationship...

I thought it was an interesting movie. Not as depressing as most 'lesbian movies', though I would not classify this as a lesbian movie. It is simply a movie that shows a straight woman falling in love with another woman. It has nothing to do with gender or lesbianism.

Jessica is merely curious as to what it is like to be with a woman. Helen, clearly, wants to be with women and is beyond curiosity, but it is never mentioned were she is bi or a lesbian. I thought it was refreshing to see a movie about two women falling in love without the 'in your face look at us we're gay' kind of thing. This is, what I think, every subject about sexuality should be like: no labels, no fuss, just two people falling in love.

Another thing is both of them gained something from the relationship even if it didn't work: Jessica became more open and less uptight and Helen continued dating women.

As much as I liked this movie I feel that compared to Imagine Me & You it possesses a naivity that didn't always work for me, whereas IM&Y was more mature. I give it a 7/10.