“Kissing Jessica Stein” is playing at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival on Feb. 21 at the Plaza Theatre. Co-writer and lead actress Jennifer Westfeldt will be in attendance for a Q&A.
I’ve always heard that when “Kissing Jessica Stein” came out in 2001, it was praised for its portrayal of a lesbian relationship. Reading old reviews, however, paints a different picture.
For the New York Times, Elvis Mitchell pointed out the film’s similarities to “Annie Hall” and continuously called it “self-congragulatory” (but I wish he went a little deeper on what he meant by that). In the Guardian, Gaby Wood also made the Woody Allen comparison and astutely pointed out that the film is less about lesbianism than it is a throwback to the Hawksian screwball comedies of yore — the protagonists just happen to both be women. In his review, Roger Ebert says the movie avoids serious questions surrounding the same-sex relationship altogether.
“If [sex] really meant anything to either one of them … the comedy would be more difficult, or in a different key,” he wrote. ”We can laugh because nothing really counts for anything.”
“Kissing Jessica Stein” stars Jennifer Westfeldt (co-writer of the film with Heather Juergensen) in the titular role. Jessica is 28, neurotic, and a bit of a perfectionist — as a copy editor at the New York Tribune, better at finding flaws in other people’s work than exploring her own creativity. She’s had terrible luck in the dating scene, both with the men she finds for herself (in a montage, one suitor unironically uses the phrase “self-defacating” instead of “self-depricating”), and with the men her Jewish mother (Tovah Feldshuh) pushes on her day after day.
On the other side of town, we have Helen (Juergensen). She’s cool, casual, adventurous — Jessica’s opposite in every way. But, the one thing she’s never done is have sex with a woman. She puts a personal ad in the paper, and Jessica answers the call.
Interestingly, many of the contemporary “Kissing Jessica Stein” reviews that I read have a similar bent: whether positive or negative, a lot of critics seem to agree that they never really believed that Jessica and Helen would end up together (spoiler alert: they don’t). While many of them recognize Westfeldt and Juergensen’s comedic chemistry, there isn’t much praise for their romance.
But, looking at reactions from queer women in particular (both contemporary and retrospective), a different picture comes to light. Scrolling through Letterboxd, frustration over the film’s last 10 minutes — where Helen breaks up with Jessica because they never have sex anymore, and Jessica reconnects with her toxic male ex and boss, Josh (Scott Cohen) – is palpable. Watching the film recently, I felt that same frustration. Unlike those critics, I felt like Jessica and Helen might be able to make it work. Even knowing the end, I believed in the evolution of their romantic and sexual relationship, and the fact that it doesn’t work out is devastating.
But, even given the film’s ending, I don’t think that “Kissing Jessica Stein” is a failure of a queer film. It’s just less about same sex relationships than it is the fluidity of sexual attraction. Jessica comes at that fluidity from a question that’s become a cliche for straight women everywhere – wouldn’t things be so much easier if I were attracted to women? – but Helen’s journey is a little more complex.
Early on in the film, one of Helen’s gay male friends chides her for “deciding” to be attracted to women, and that’s a critique you could see gaining traction back in 2001. But watching the movie now, Juergensen’s performance never allows the audience to question Helen’s attraction to women. So much attention is paid to the fact that Jessica ends up with a man (and really, the larger problem is not so much that Josh is a man, but that he is also the worst man), but Helen ends up in a committed, loving relationship with another woman. This experience has opened up a whole new world for her. And that open-mindedness is the true triumph of “Kissing Jessica Stein” — it may not always land the plane, but it’s always willing to let its protagonists explore.