“Kissing Jessica Stein” Is a Classic of Queer Jewish Anxiety

In Lost Movie Reviews From the Autostraddle Archives we revisit past lesbian, bisexual, and queer classics that we hadn’t reviewed before, but you shouldn’t miss. 


Shanah Tovah.

I hope those of you who celebrate had a relatively joyous Rosh Hashanah. And now please join me in the High Holy Day of revisiting Jewish queer woman classic Kissing Jessica Stein, directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld, written by Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt, and starring Juergensen, Westfeldt, and legend of stage and screen Tovah Feldshuh.

I’ve often wondered the cause of so many Jewish clichés — the anxiety, the indecision, the exact way a Jewish mother can critique you with a compliment. I’ve wondered how widespread it is — how class, race, location, and sect impact these behaviors. I can’t generalize about an entire religion, but I can speak to my own experience. For me, Judaism is about questioning. I suppose some people turn to religion for answers, but I don’t see the appeal. I love the not knowing, the curiosity, the constant push to better understand ourselves and our world. It’s a lifelong journey and the only one I know. It can be really fucking miserable.

I think Jewish guilt is more about Jewish obligation, Jewish uncertainty. Sure, the Torah is a guide to living a meaningful life, but the further you get from taking it as a strict rulebook, the less clear its instructions become. It’s simple enough to say that helping others is a tenet of Judaism. But does this mean a life dedicated to activism? A commitment to Jewish community? A commitment to individual community? An obligation to family? If you try too hard to live for others, a meaningful life won’t have much meaning. You can become stuck in a state of anxiety, so desperate to do right that you do nothing at all.

To say that 2001 romcom Kissing Jessica Stein begins with these questions might seem silly except that it literally starts in a synagogue on Yom Kippur. Jessica is sitting between her grandma and her mom Judy and Judy is trying to matchmaker matchmaker make Jessica a match right in the middle of service. Is marrying a random man before you turn 30 to make your mom happy the key to a meaningful life? What about having the impossibly high standards of your grandmother? Jessica finally snaps. “Mom, would you shut up? I’m atoning!”

The fact is Jessica is trying to follow the path best suited for her family. She’s stopped painting except as a hobby — opting instead for a stable job at a newspaper. She goes on miserable date after miserable date desperate to get married and have kids and do everything she’s expected to do. But the thing about Jessica is she’s too smart or too stubborn or too something to ignore herself altogether. She simply cannot settle in love how she’s settled in her career. Something is pushing her to want more.

Enter Helen. Helen is not Jewish. Helen is not anxious. But Helen is also questioning. She takes out a woman-seeking-woman personal ad in the paper in pursuit of her first queer experience. When Jessica makes the out of character choice of responding to the ad — a Rilke quote will do that to you — Helen is totally smitten. Even as Jessica tries to flee the date and call it a mistake and make every excuse she can imagine, Helen waits patiently. This starts to seem like more than an experiment for her. This other woman feels worth the wait.

On their first date, Jessica makes a snide remark about a group of Hare Krishnas. Helen pushes back. “Some people smoke pot, some people bungee jump, some people chant,” Helen says. “What do you do to be happy?”

“Nothing,” Jessica shoots back. “I’m not.”

Jessica says it doesn’t matter if she’s happy. She has a job. She’s accomplishing something in the world. What exactly is she accomplishing? Well, she’s being a grown-up. Helen thinks seeking personal enlightenment is actually less selfish — or at least more productive — than being miserable all the time. “Are you saying that my life has no value?” Jessica asks defeated.

“No, I’m saying that maybe underneath all the neurosis, you have a profound capacity for happiness that you’re not allowing to exist.”

Jessica protests once again. She knows herself too well. She knows her limits. She knows how she’ll react to everything. Then Helen kisses her. And, well, turns out having a hot woman’s tongue in your mouth actually does approach something like profound happiness.

Helen and Jessica start to date and it works. Jessica is suddenly much happier — confusing everyone especially her boss/ex Josh Meyers. But Jessica still can’t quite live for herself. She makes Helen move comically slow and on the day they’re finally supposed to have sex she accepts her mother’s invitation to Shabbat. Even when they settle into the groove of a relationship, Jessica keeps it a secret. She doesn’t even tell her therapist. “I’m a Jew from Scarsdale,” Jessica panics. “This has to stop.”

If you talked to my parents they would tell you I’ve always done exactly what I wanted to do. They would say I’ve always been stubborn, never planned to stay in my hometown, always wanted to be an artist, and never felt anything like social or familial obligation. They would be wrong. It’s true that I’ve always been someone incapable of lying to anyone except myself, but I spent the first 23 years of my life trying to both live truthfully and appease my family, my friends, my teachers, and society the best that I could. The same way Jessica rejects men but continues to panic about finding a man, I rejected my family’s expectations while still carrying an immense amount of guilt. The panic, the guilt, it didn’t do anything except send a message to my parents that my defiant choices were making me miserable.

Then I came out.

We think of coming out as an embrace of our gender or sexuality or both. But coming out freed me in ways that go beyond this base understanding. Suddenly, doing what I was supposed to do became so far out of reach that it ceased to exist. My whole life I felt like I was failing to follow the rules but all of a sudden I found myself playing a new game. I learned how to set boundaries, I learned how to let go of my guilt, I learned how to focus on myself. These changes didn’t make me more selfish — they did the opposite. All of my relationships — familial, romantic, friendships, societal — became deeper and more authentic.

The best moment in Kissing Jessica Stein is when Judy talks to Jessica on her porch. It’s the day before Jessica’s brother’s wedding and Helen has just ended their relationship. Jessica wouldn’t come out and Helen was tired of being a secret and now Jessica is alone and wondering if she’ll always be. Jessica’s eyes glisten with tears. “You’re my love, you know that? My beloved.” Judy says. “But sometimes I worry for you.”

“I worry for me too,” Jessica cries.

Judy tells an anecdote. When Jessica was in 5th grade she was cast as the lead in the school play. She was thrilled. But after the first day of rehearsal she quit because her costar wasn’t good enough and if the show wasn’t going to be good enough she wanted no part in it. Jessica’s replacement turned out to be terrible and her costar turned out to be excellent and Judy suggests Jessica could’ve been so much happier if she’d just done the play — if she’d taken that risk. “I think,” Judy’s voice cracks and she pauses finding a smile. “I think she’s a very nice girl.”

Jessica’s head flips around. Her mom knows about Helen. Her mom approves. It was never about controlling the direction of Jessica’s life — it was just about wanting her daughter to be happy. Judy just assumed happiness meant marrying the shul’s latest eligible bachelor. But when she’s shown an alternative? When she sees her daughter finding happiness in her own way? She’s happy too. This scene is wish fulfillment for many a queer, but it works because at its core is a painful truth: heteronormativity, and even homophobia, can come from a place of love. Judy is probably the reason 5th grade Jessica quit the play — Jessica’s perfectionism comes from somewhere — but that wasn’t her intention. It’s taken Jessica’s queerness to reveal the fact that Judy just wants her to be happy whatever that ends up meaning.

Of course, Jessica’s queerness is itself debatable and this brings us to the film’s controversial end. Jessica and Helen reunite and start a real relationship and months pass and then it’s over. Helen ends it, because Jessica doesn’t seem that interested in her sexually. More months pass. Now Jessica is working full time as a painter, she’s stopped straightening her Jewish curls, and she’s developed a friendship with Helen who has a new girlfriend. She runs into Josh Meyers and this gay romcom seems to have a straight happy ending.

I used to hate this ending. I related deeply to Jessica and her rejection of queerness felt like a betrayal. But the years have passed, and as my own queerness has changed my relationship to my family and myself, I’ve realized I’m really more of a Helen anyway. The fact is queerness freed Jessica from the confines of an expected life and whether she wants to date another woman or settle down with Josh Meyers that will always be true. That’s the power of a queer identity — no matter how short-lived.

It’s true that living for others is a tenet of Judaism. But the only way to live for others is to live for yourself enough that you know which others you want to live for. Queerness gave that to me. I’m still an anxious Jew. I’m writing this on Rosh Hashanah. Ruth Bader Ginsberg just died. We’re a month and a half away from an election I have no faith in during a pandemic that seems to have no end. I feel more uncertain about my actions than I have in years. Writing this review of delightful romcom Kissing Jessica Stein feels like an absurd thing to do given the circumstances. But what I know is my queerness has given me a clarity to approach even the toughest moments in a way I couldn’t before. It guides me and my Judaism guides me and even if I still don’t have all the answers I’ve accepted that I’ll never have all the answers. That’s kind of the whole point. Happy new year everyone.


You can watch Kissing Jessica Stein for $3.99 on Amazon Prime

Want more movies? Check out Autostraddle’s 200 Best Lesbian Movies of All Time.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Drew Burnett Gregory

Drew is a Brooklyn-based writer, filmmaker, and theatremaker. She is a Senior Editor at Autostraddle with a focus in film and television, sex and dating, and politics. Her writing can also be found at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cosmopolitan UK, Refinery29, Into, them, and Knock LA. She was a 2022 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Notable Writer and a 2023 Lambda Literary Screenwriting Fellow. She is currently working on a million film and TV projects mostly about queer trans women. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Drew Burnett has written 624 articles for us.

13 Comments

  1. Thank you for this 💜💜

    “This scene is wish fulfillment for many a queer, but it works because at its core is a painful truth: heteronormativity, and even homophobia, can come from a place of love.” That’s exactly it. This movie was a lifeline for me when I was in the closet and I’m so happy to see the queer community circling back to it

  2. Wow. Drew, what a beautiful piece of writing. I have always felt so disappointed in this movie because it always just seemed like really she was straight all along in a way that made it feel more like a straight film than a gay one. I remain uncertain whether I actually want to watch it again but you make an extremely convincing case and this is just a wonderful example of how a film review can be so much more than just a film review. Thank you so much and L’shana tovah.

  3. I feel like people are way too hard on this movie for having a straight protagonist. I liked it way more than lots of other ‘queerer’ movies released in that decade because it was well-written, funny, and emotionally moving.

    The scene with her mom was perfect. I watched it over and over again after my mom was disappointed by my coming out. Also, Tovah Feldshuh and Jackie Hoffman were so good in it, it’s always a joy to come across them in other productions.

  4. Thank you for this. It’s always been one of my favorite queer movies because it’s just… well-written and well-made, which we were desperate for at the time. Sure, it’s disappointing that Jess is maybe straight or maybe a Kinsey 2 or any other variation on what it was, but the relationship was real and Helen is queer as can be by the end! And that “I think she’s a very nice girl” moment so spectacularly delivered by Feldshuh is one of those cinematic moments that makes me cry every time I replace that overused DVD.

  5. I love everything about this except, and maybe I’m misreading it? this line: “That’s the power of a queer identity — no matter how short-lived.”

    Well, a bisexual is still bisexual even if she settles down, ultimately, with a man. Her queer identity is not short-lived. That’s just how she’s now living her bisexuality.

    • I read Jessica as bisexual because I choose to project that onto the movie, but famously that’s not the supposed intention of the straight women co-writers. It’s not just that she ends up with Josh — she doesn’t even end up with him! she just flirts with him for a few moments! It’s the implication that she was never really into Helen as more than a friend.

      A lot of people hate this movie/the ending because Jessica is framed as straight at the end and I felt that needed to be addressed. BUT I think when just taking the movie at face value there’s no reason why Jessica and Helen’s relationship couldn’t have just grown stale or maybe Jessica just isn’t that into Helen! Clearly these straight women in 2001 did not understand the existence of bisexuality — hell even The L Word writers in 2004 didn’t — so it makes the ending confusing and vague. But again I think we can project whatever we want.

      I was just saying that even if you choose to believe this was just an experiment for Jessica it doesn’t change the film’s queerness or depth.

  6. “The fact is queerness freed Jessica from the confines of an expected life and whether she wants to date another woman or settle down with Josh Meyers that will always be true.”

    Thanks for this. I have always adored this film because it’s not just a straightforward rom-com, but rather a look at what exploring different sides of ourselves and trying out different types of relationships can do for the betterment of our lives. I get why some were annoyed that she wasn’t a full on gaylady by the end, but as someone who didn’t fit neatly into the gay or straight boxes that everyone wanted to put me in when I was younger, this film always felt like it was speaking directly to me. It was in exploring queerness that I was able to live a more fulfilled life.

  7. This is beautiful, Drew! Kissing Jessica Stein sometimes feels like a film that can’t fully be appreciated until people are fully immersed in their own queer identity (or at least its a film that certainly took me and my queer friends a minute to fully appreciate), but I so appreciate your read on it.

    This line esp hit for me: “The fact is queerness freed Jessica from the confines of an expected life and whether she wants to date another woman or settle down with Josh Meyers that will always be true. That’s the power of a queer identity — no matter how short-lived.”

    I’m really comfortable with the idea that maybe Helen is the (1) woman that Jessica ever has any semi-sustained interest in, and that maybe, in opening herself up to this little bit of queerness, Jessica also opened herself up to a profound capacity for a deeper platonic connection with Helen (and arguably other friends) in the long run. In engaging this new sense of queerness, Jessica lets herself get closer to Helen than she otherwise would’ve ever attempted or imagined, even if that doesn’t translate into sexy feelings, and to me that’s a little bit of a Narnia right? If you don’t go poking around, maybe you’ll think everything worth seeing is already in your line of sight. Maybe you’ll think good friendships are just liking 2 tv shows and taking turns complaining about your partners/bosses over monthly brunches until you die.

    I feel like being gay and realizing that I had a huge range of feelings for women has made me devote a lot more time to weighing what my friendships mean and how intimacy can look/feel even without romance, and I imagine that work is harder for straight women with hard boundaries about how they’ll only ever vent their feelings to the one man who shares their bed and refuses to watch Bachelor in Paradise with them or whatever. (No offense to straight women, some of whom seem perfectly nice.)

    Anyway, thanks for writing this, Drew. Shanah Tovah.

  8. Huh! I just watched this bc it’s streaming and appreciate the Jewish anxiety lens. and yeah if I were less settled in my queerness could find it more unnerving re bad representation as opposed to something that can be appreciated on its own.

    Maybe this is just bc I was talking to a fellow ace-spec friend yesterday, but I project that Jessica is definitely bi (or she could even be lesbian) without being very into sex. The least performative attraction we see with her seems to be with Helen when they finally hook up. Annnd as somebody who doesn’t find less-than-monthly sex so jarring after a while in a relationship, I was just like huh they’ve for mismatched sex drives. And ofc also Helen’s new partner will be more into sex bc the relationship is newer. Also, Jessica responds to men’s attention, but lots of gays do that with comp-het. So, interesting to know she was supposed to be fully straight!

    But anyhow, appreciate this review and people’s comments! Wouldn’t have watched the movie without this inspiration. And I don’t really think my read is objectively correct so much as this movie is just a story with ambiguity and some nuance, and that’s cool and queer in itself

  9. I just watched this movie then read this article and started crying. The way queerness frees you from expectations is the most terrifying but ultimately liberating thing I’ve ever experienced and this movie and your writing explained that so perfectly.

Comments are closed.