Rating: 
Summary: ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE MOVIES!
Review: I don't think I could watch this movie too many times (or enough times, for that matter). I found the writing and acting outstanding, and every scene was just perfect. I think Heather and Jennifer are brilliant, and this movie is fantastic. Funny, heartwarming, original, and unpredictable. I recommend this for anyone who wants a good laugh and doesn't mind seeing two beautiful women make out.
Rating:
Summary: Ultimate Chick Flick
Review: Don't let those whispers about lesbianism scare you away from a terrifically funny and often poignant movie! It's a factor, but not the true central theme. The two women featured in the film are looking for love, but have very distinct ideas about what is acceptable. Their relationship ultimately helps them both break out of old patterns, but not necessarily with the same results. It's an intelligent, contemporary comedy, and the DVD has some fun extras that didn't make the original cut.
Rating: 
Summary: Who was this movie made for?
Review: Well, I watched it with a couple of my friends... a lesbian friend of mine, and my girlfriend (yes, I am a girl). Up until the last ten minutes of the movie, we were completely content... by the time Jessica decides that it just wasn't for her, we were so pissed off we would have broken the DVD in half if it hadn't been a Blockbuster rental.
Who gains pleasure out of seeing a woman who has been pretty much lesbian for the past hour and a half go back to a man in the last ten minutes? I can tell you, the lesbians didn't like it much... and it couldn't have been much fun for the straight people to watch two girls making out for a good portion of the film... so who likes the movie? The bisexuals, maybe? Even then, the entire first half of the movie was spent developing a good relationship between two people, and in the last couple minutes, she goes for the person you weren't even rooting for.
Overall, it was a disappointment... the straight people have their happy dramedy romances, where is ours? The most uplifting gay movie I have seen was If These Walls Could Talk 2, and I think there need to be a few more like it... ...
Rating: 
Summary: Great until the Very End
Review: Like the other reviewers, I would have to say, I LOVED this movie. I thought the end was going to be great, and then it switched gears and came back into the mainstream. Ugh! Otherwise, a wonderfully funny film with pure hearts and very sweet scenes. My recommendation: Believe the end is where you feel it should be. (My opinion: before the last scene which should have ended up on the cutting room floor.)
Rating: 
Summary: This movie broke my heart...
Review: ... and I just don't know whether it and I can still be friends. It makes me so frustrated that this beautiful, sensitive, funny and utterly delightful movie about the challenges of coming out to ourselves and about our hangups following us along when we try to run away from them, got hijacked at the end and turned into something "safe" for a straight girl to watch with her boyfriend. "Don't worry, honey, your masculinity won't feel threatened at all at the end... she goes back to men just like she's supposed to!" Argh! WHY couldn't this have been our movie?! Look, coming out to oneself IS just that difficult, and at least for those of us who run neurotic to begin with, getting started at same-sex sex really CAN be awkward to the point of utter ridiculousness. So Jessica was insecure and had to deal with all the classic coming-out angst (right down to the gloriously modern twist that her friends and family are more OK with her than she is!), so we relate, we identify, we empathize, for hours. The problem is, after all that, I guess this movie couldn't be made both affirming for us and "safe" for mainstream straight folks at the same time. So at the end, we're the ones who get the rug yanked out. Surprise! All that familiar insecurity and confusion happened because she really never was supposed to be with women in the first place! What a relief that must be to the "bicurious straight girls"! Yes, dear, you can experiment, have your fun, and then go right back to the approved normal life society wants you to have. Never mind about the feelings of the girls you experiment with, either. (Helen was no innocent victim, but... staying her best friend after that? Talk about your lesbian fantasies!) Jessica's a fictional character, so I get to say this: she could have, and should have, been a real bisexual girl. She was true-to-life, identifiable-with, utterly delightful, and was figuring it out. It was working. Sure, she & Helen needed an interesting relationship challenge, but why not give them one they could actually overcome? Straight people already HAVE feel-good romantic comedies. Give us back "Jessica Stein"! (I actually thought, on first viewing, that the credits were going to roll just after they moved in together, and I'm thinking I might choose to pretend that they do. It's a pretty feel-good queer-girl movie that way. Next best thing to a DVD "bonus alternate ending", I guess!)
Rating: 
Summary: kissing JESSICA stein..right
Review: Well I have to say that this movie was the worst film I've ever seen.
Let's us begin with the stereotypes. The "sexually frustrated NY business woman," "the flaming gay couple," and of course " the hoe"-who is trisexual..try anything once-- or so I was lead to believe. Besides the fact that these modern day Commedia characters were bland and lacking charisma- I gave the movie a chance. I actually got into the plot and by the balcony scene, I thought the movie would have a nice ending. Boy, was I wrong. Jessica ends up with a man, which is exactly what society wants. She tried the " forbidden fruit" and once it left her; she decided to go running to the same man who was persuing her while she was "in love with a woman." Maybe this movie could have been called " leaving jessica stein" because once Jessica's lover left,the movie's small charm left with it. KJS was portrayed as a film about a woman "discovering" herself. There was no discovery here. She "tried" something and left it the minute it left her. I felt her character was not developed at all, nor were any others. By definition: a comedy is a plot that starts off at a low point and ends on a high one. This started low and ended even lower. Neither romance, nor comedy, nor tragedy here. This film shouldn't have resembled a POORLY written episode of Sex and the City...
Rating:
Summary: Smart, Sophisticated Romantic Comedy
Review: Jessica Stein is a successful copy editor in New York City. Unfortunately, she hasn't been so successful in her personal life. She's a mess of perfectionism and neurosis, and her love life is just plain lousy. The movie opens with a montage of disastrous first dates that collectively bring Jessica to a breaking point. She is desperate to find someone with whom to share her life. When she spots a personal ad quoting her favorite poet, it catches her attention. Only one problem, it's a woman-and Jessica is straight. Isn't she? She's so fed up with men that she's actually ready to try something a little different, so against her better judgment, she meets with Helen, the art gallery manager who placed the ad. Much to her surprise, they have a lot in common and, after a few hilarious false starts, they stumble their way into an awkward romance, the first same-sex romance either of them has ever had. Helen is a lot more relaxed about this new state of affairs than Jessica. Jessica is especially scared of telling her friends and her traditional Jewish mother that she is in a lesbian relationship. The issue is forced to a head when she must decide whether or not to bring Helen to her brother's wedding. Will Jessica be able to maintain her relationship with Helen, and is she even really a lesbian? Kissing Jessica Stein was based on the off-Broadway play Lipschtick, which was written by Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen, who starred in the original stage production as well as this film adaptation. The script is deliciously funny, with wickedly edgy humor and equally sharp observations about sex and love in the 21st Century, exploring sexuality in a way few movies have had the courage to do. Great writing and wonderful acting make this a witty and realistic movie worth watching. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A bit odd... but funny at times
Review: I found this a bit funny and definitely odd. The characters were really out there, and the situations certainly unusual. I can see the Woody Allen influence in here, whom I've never found entertaining. Nevertheless, the film isn't too bad... the neurotic Jessica Stein seems almost like the typical Jewish girl... but goodness can she find the weirdest men in NY. Please tell me there are not men this odd!!
Rating:
Summary: Funny and Intelligent...
Review: Very few gay/lesbian films are made for most moviegoers. This is one of those 'few' films. Brilliantly written, Stein is a wonderful exploration of self and sexuality with great performances and funny dialogue/situations. The entire film is directed with a compassion for humans whether you are male, female, gay or straight. There are scenes aplenty of uncomfortable situations and decisions that make you feel for the characters without having to totally relate to their plight. Written and starring Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen, this film proves that they both have a very bright future in filmmaking. Directed by newcomer Charles Herman Wurmfeld, I highly reccommend this one! **** Stars.
Rating:
Summary: Smart and witty romantic comedy
Review: This movie is about a girl looking for love. Yes, it's been done a thousand times, but this one gives it a twist and makes it completely delightful. The twist, of course, is what most people end up talking about first even though it has little to do with the real message of the movie. The twist is that Jessica Stein, after passing over a litany of male suitors because she views them intellectually inferior, and after being confronted about her superior attitude by a previously-rejected-but-clearly-still-smitten admirer (now her boss), she nervously replies to a classified ad placed by Helen, who is initially just looking for more options in her already active dating life. Even though this is Helen's first venture into same-sex relationships, she is much less repressed than Jessica and this provides for both comic and touching moments of the movie. What starts out for Helen as more of an experiment turns into a real attempt at a meaningful love relationship with Jessica, who also wants the same but brings more issues to the mix. These issues provide for comic and touching moments of the movie. This situation could have been written for female-male leads but then what would have been fresh about that? The movie stays focused and does not get bogged down in too many details. Its final cut didn't try to fill in too many unimportant details. This may have been intentional or perhaps through editing for time constraints, but either way it works. This movie is not about lesbian love; it's about love. It's about moving personal boundaries in order to discover something about yourself. If you're looking for it to make a statement about same-sex relationships, you'll probably be disappointed. But if you're looking for a smartly written, extremely entertaining and well-acted romantic comedy (and you're not uptight about same-sex relationships), you'll probably want to add it to your personal movie collection.
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