Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Kissing Jessica Stein Blu-ray Movie Review

Keep it gay?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 7, 2014

What a difference a few years have made. When Kissing Jessica Stein started screening theatrically in 2001 (with a wide release in 2002), there was at least a murmur of shock from certain quarters that the film was a romantic comedy built around the halting relationship between two women, with supporting characters who exhibited the entire spectrum of human sexuality from gay to straight to somewhere in between. One suspects that if Kissing Jessica Stein were to debut today, it would cause barely a ripple in the cultural zeitgeist continuum, and would instead be judged solely on the merits of its writing and performances rather than certain aspects of its subject matter. Seeing the film now in the cold, clear light of the recent glut of states striking down laws banning gay marriage and a general loosening of strictures against those with so-called “alternative” lifestyles, Kissing Jessica Stein comes off as an enjoyable but decidedly lightweight attempt to prove that whatever gender lips one might be kissing, there are certain universal trials that attend any attempt at developing intimacy. It’s a pat thesis, of course, and one which has been explored endlessly in more “traditional” rom-coms through the years, and perhaps for that reason Kissing Jessica Stein can never quite rise to the upper echelons of the general rom-com genre. In its own peculiar subgenre, it perhaps manages to do a bit better, buoyed by ebullient (if more than slightly neurotic) performances and a nicely ambivalent tone that seems to suggest if boy meets girl or girl meets girl doesn’t quite work out, there are other choices that are worthy of being explored.

Jessica Stein (Jennifer Westfeldt) is one of those slightly too glamorous and successful looking twenty-somethings who seem to populate a lot of rom-coms. Jessica works as a copy editor in a bustling Manhattan office, and though her professional life seems to be at least relatively on track, her personal affairs are shown to be less than wonderful, as evidenced by a trite but still enjoyable montage of failed dates (with men). Throwing caution to the wind, Jessica decides to respond to a personal ad placed by a woman (this was long before the days of internet dating sites or even the somewhat smarmier environs of CraigsList “casual encounters”). The ad’s author turns out to be Helen (Heather Juergensen), a slightly older bisexual woman who runs (a slightly too glamorous and successful) art gallery.

One of the problems with Kissing Jessica Stein is that however much it insists it's provocative and groundbreaking, it repeatedly tends to fall into fairly predicable and cliché ridden rom-com territory. This includes everything from Jessica’s overbearing but ultimately understanding Jewish mother Judy (Tovah Feldshuh), who of course keeps trying to line her daughter up with eligible (heterosexual) mates, to Jessica’s doe eyed boss Josh (Scott Cohen), who obviously has feelings for her. The film is never less than amiable in its perusal of its characters, but there’s a certain rote flavor to many of the proceedings that not even the by now passé plot point of lesbianism can really perk up very much.

Where Kissing Jessica Stein tends to find a foothold is in a couple of tangential subplots, including Jessica’s attempts to overcome her initial qualms about being with another woman. The faltering, stuttering quality of Westfeldt in these sequences is almost palpable, aided by the relatively calmer, more assured presence of Juergensen’s Helen. Still, there’s a remarkably sanguine quality underlying a lot of Kissing Jessica Stein that seems to suggest that entering a gay relationship, let alone coming out, is really no big deal. That may in fact be an admirable thesis, but does it really reflect what gay couples have historically gone through and maybe even continue to go through despite the recent legal developments that make front page news across the country?

Despite a major conceit that seems decidedly less shocking now than it did even just a little over ten years ago, Kissing Jessica Stein still manages to deliver its fair share of laughs and more gentle, heartstring tugging moments. Many of these actually stem from more universal ideas like the fear of intimacy than from anything directly related to questions of sexuality. Westfeldt and Juergensen, who also co-wrote the film (adapting a portion of an off- Broadway play they also co-scripted), give honest, real feeling portrayals, though the film’s denouement may actually end up provoking some viewers more than any of its supposedly overtly shocking elements. Westfeldt and Juergensen seem to want to suggest that since human sexual preference is a spectrum, drifting back and forth shouldn’t raise any eyebrows. Unfortunately, that thesis tends to undercut the very basis for much of what has gone before.

Kissing Jessica Stein Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kissing Jessica Stein is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is a frankly pretty lackluster looking transfer that perhaps suggests that this is yet another older master that Fox has had lying around for some time and is only now deigning to release on Blu-ray. The overall appearance here is often quite soft looking, with kind of middling contrast that adds a layer of murkiness to many of the interior shots. Blacks are often just slightly on the milky side as well. Colors on the other hand appear natural, if not overly vivid, and in fact the entire appearance here is surprisingly drab a lot of the time. On the plus side of the equation, there are no major artifacts to contend with and along with what appears to be no restorative efforts, there likewise appears to have been no overt digital tweaking to the image. The result is a middle of the road looking release that's arguably a nice step up from standard definition, but hardly revelatory in any meaningful way.

Kissing Jessica Stein Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While Kissing Jessica Stein's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 offers very good fidelity, there's simply not much opportunity for any convincing immersion here, other than ambient environmental sounds and scenes that offer groups of people congregating together. The bulk of this film plays out in intimate scenes between two people, and here the track stays resolutely anchored in the front channels. Everything is very cleanly presented on the track and while there's no really amazing surround activity here, there are also no issues of any kind to report.

Kissing Jessica Stein Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt (480i; 24:50)


• Featurette (480i; 8:50) is actually called The Making of 'Kissing Jessica Stein' and is a rote EPK, albeit with some appealing interviews.


• Audio Commentary by Director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld and Cinematographer Lawrence Sher. This is a good, largely anecdotal, commentary that deals with some of the ins and outs of the location shoot, as well as a perhaps surprisingly honest assessment of how the film turned out.


• Audio Commentary by Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt is for my money the better of the two commentaries on the disc, with a good, bantering discussion between the two stars and co-writers who go into everything from the challenges of porting the idea over into film (and finding backers) to some surprising historical information about the screening process.


• Theatrical Trailer (480i; 2:09)

Kissing Jessica Stein Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kissing Jessica Stein is sweet natured if not especially ribald (especially considering the slew of more in your face gay themed comedies that have come down the pike over the past several years). While some of the writing here tends to gloss over issues that gay people have traditionally had to encounter, the performances are quite winning and the film maintains a breezy enough air to overcome some of its inherent shortcomings. While there's a certain "sitcom" feeling to a lot of Kissing Jessica Stein, what ultimately may keep contemporary audiences from enjoying the film as anything other than a slight diversion is the fact that culturally we seem to be in an entirely new era where the film's central thesis of someone "experimenting" with lesbianism seems almost old hat. Even fans of the film may be a bit disappointed with the video quality here, which is okay but hardly stellar. While Kissing Jessica Stein may work best as an historical artifact of sorts, it still offers some good laughs along the way, and with the above mentioned caveats kept in mind, comes Recommended.