The Single Life
A review of Kissing Jessica Stein.

By Michael Potemra, NR literary editor
March 13, 2002 8:55 a.m.

et's say you're the typical heterosexual woman, in your mid twenties, and you've just had a string of dating disasters. Your kid brother is getting married, to the acclaim of your entire family; your own self-worth is on its way to the toilet, after a brief stop at the shredder. Then you meet a bright, affectionate, sexually attractive person who really digs you — and the only problem is, that person is a woman.

This is the "high concept" of the new movie Kissing Jessica Stein, which is set — to beautiful effect — in New York City, but tells what is essentially a universal story. It asks a question too rarely broached in our society: Just how important is sexuality anyway? Our culture wars seem to be preponderantly about sexual issues — for and against gay rights, sexual content on TV, promiscuous teens and illegitimacy, yada, yada, yada — but rarely do we step back and question the obsession itself.

In this movie, the likeable heroine (the Jessica of the title, played by Jennifer Westfeldt) adopts a new sexual orientation out of love for her friend Helen (Heather Juergensen). Ditzy but bright, and somewhat conservative in her social attitudes, Jessica struggles, in this new relationship, against her own sexual inclinations. Are these inclinations innate? Are they a social construct? These are irrelevant questions, ones that people can write steamy op-eds about until the end of time; for Jessica, the important thing is that the inclinations exist in her — and so her love for Helen, when she expresses it sexually, involves a major emotional sacrifice.

Just how major? Now there's an interesting question. Over the years, Jessica's heterosexuality has become a central part of her identity, her self-image, her relations with family and friends. To try and turn away from something so ingrained into oneself and one's history is a daunting task; indeed, the only thing that could reasonably induce someone to risk it is — love.

What's truly remarkable about this movie is that it doesn't have an easy answer to the question of whether Jessica is on the right track in what's she doing. Sexual liberalism offers a ready answer to the question, "Is it OK to act on my sexual impulses?" (Sure, if your action involves consenting adults, doesn't treat people purely as objects, etc.) But it is brought up rather short by the question, "Is it OK for me to act against my sexual impulses?" To address that one, we need a much broader moral framework than the one society offers us.

Kissing Jessica Stein works very well as a movie because it's not about a canned message; it's about realized, well-acted characters in a well-written story. Westfeldt and Juergensen wrote the script themselves, and deserve much credit for bringing this provocative, entertaining film to the screen. About sex, we have enough — indeed, too many — movies; this is an unusual one, about people and about love.