Kissing Jessica Stein

What with so many famous people coming out as lesbians, it’s high time we had a movie about straight girls trying on lesbian sex because they’re sick of men. I mean, that’s how Laura Bush and Ted Koppel had their first lesbian experiences, so why not make a movie about it? In Kissing Jessica Stein the titular Jessica Stein has a series of bad dates with men and so decides to try her luck in the realm of Sappho. Meanwhile, across town, art gallery trendoid Helen Cooper is having so much sex with men that she figures she might as well get her freak on with a lady, just so she can say she’s tried everything once. Of course, they meet and transform their previously phallo-centric lives with the loving touch of a sister’s knowing hand. While this plot is right out of My Fair Lady, or at least the special direct-to-video version of My Fair Lady, the dialogue makes up for the trite story. Kissing Jessica Stein is constantly, hilariously funny, with lead actress and writer Jennifer Westfeldt coming off as a younger, gayer, femaler version of Woody Allen. You know, the good Woody Allen, from the early, funny movies. Don’t expect any surprises in the story, as everything happens exactly as you think it will, but for pure laughs there hasn’t been a better movie than Jessica Stein since the Republicans outlawed comedy.