Film review (From Stroud News and Journal)

Film review

KISSING JESSICA STEIN (15)

OF COURSE originality is of the essence in filmmaking. However, though I have no desire to see the return of the sexually repressed Victorian era - some hope - one must question if it is necessary to encourage young people to explore different sexual orientations just because they can't find a partner to enjoy a ordinary heterosexual relationship with. In the case of this film, a normally straight girl embarks on a lesbian liaison, for no other reason than she is surrounded by people who are happily settled, whilst she can't find a man.

Well, sorry to jump on my moral high horse here, but to make a film about such a subject must send out all the wrong messages to all the wrong teenagers under the guise of a light hearted comedy - which this film undoubtedly is.

Why isn't patience promoted anymore? We don't need a Mills and Boone knight, but regular romance would be good, or is that passe nowadays?

Kissing Jessica Stein seemingly gets away with the theme because nothing really happens and it is funny and frivolous. However, it is suggested that sex in nothing more than a leisure activity - where did emotion go?

Jewish New York newspaper copy editor Jessica Stein (Jennifer Westfeldt) likes eating Haagen-Daz by the pint while sipping wine to calm her nerves. She is a 28 year old for whom her mother (Tovah Feldshuh) and grandmother are trying desperately to find a man.

Their favourite matchmaking place is the synagogue, where the males between 20 and 45 in the congregation are closely scrutinised and devotion comes pretty low. Sandwiched between the two of them Jessica hisses: "Would you shut up? I'm atoning."

Unrelentingly mother invites an IBM executive to dinner in the hope that he might be the one, which only adds to Jessicas insecurities.

After failing abysmally on dates through the personal column, in despair she answers one in the Women Seeking Women section. She is drawn to the advertisement by the quotation from the poet Rilke and is even more delighted with the word marinate when not used in association with cooking.

Jessica loves words and plays verbal games with her boss and ex-boyfriend Josh (Scott Cohen) to show off her dexterity.

Oversexed art-gallery owner Helen Cooper (Heather Jurgensen) placed the ad because she is bored with men and wants a change. They embark on a tentative courtship, neither being quite sure how far they should go. However though the experienced Helen is more relaxed, Jessica tackles the situation with enthusiasm, arriving on the first date with step-by-step sex manuals.

That said, when it is her brothers wedding she is very reluctant to invite Helen, which would mean her coming out of the closet.

So what is their sexual direction and can the stereotype Jewish mother come up trumps in the end?

Westfeldt and Jurgensen wrote the sharp and witty script based on their play Lipschtick which ran off-off Broadway in the autumn of 1997.

It is an honest and at times sweet interpretation of what really might happen given the same situation, greatly helped by the chemistry between them. The star turn must go to Feldshuh, who gives a performance worthy of a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

Making his debut as director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld delivers a well-put together comedy. However like Mel Gibson's What Women Want it has a laboured start, a clever middle and a contrived ending, making it overall a very lightweight film.

Clare Shepherd 5/10