Trust in life and be open to new experiences. Easier said than done for most of us. We have a nasty habit of constricting our world through an excessive use of criticism or control. Like a grocer, we measure the new people in our lives. A better strategy is openness, extending our hearts in all directions. With this approach, we might just find ourselves in uncharted territory.
Jessica Stein (Jennifer Westfeldt) is a Manhattan copy editor who hasn’t had much luck finding the right man. Her dominating mother, Judy (Tovah Feldshuh), is constantly setting her up on dates but they are always disastrous. One day at the office, her pregnant coworker Joan (Jackie Hoffman) reads aloud a personal ad that quotes Rainer Maria Rilke. Even though the ad is in the woman-seeking-woman area, Jessica decides to follow up. She secretly meets Helen (Heather Juergensen), who wrote the piece with her gay friends Martin (Michael Mastro) and Sebastian (Carson Elrod).
Jessica is surprised at how much she likes Helen, an art gallery assistant director who is easy-going, street-smart, and adventurous. They become good friends but Helen pushes for a sexual bonding that is difficult for Jessica to handle. Meanwhile, back at the office, Josh (Scott Cohen), Jessica’s boss and former college boyfriend, is turned on by her new sexual glow. A crisis looms on the horizon when Jessica must decide whether to be open about her relationship with Helen at her brother’s upcoming wedding.
Charles Herman-Wurmfeld directs this frisky and fresh romantic comedy. The savvy screenplay by Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt, based on their play Lipschtick, conveys some of the anxieties of modern day sexual politics and especially the challenges of friendships between women. Jessica habitually holds herself back from people — a pattern that is vividly conveyed in a magical scene when her mother recounts an incident from her daughter’s past where she bowed out of a play because of an unwillingness to believe in the talent of a boy who would appear with her. Jessica’s experiences with Helen enable her to break out of her cocoon and to finally face the world and other people with a courageous and confident openness.
The DVD edition contains an audio commentary by the authors and stars, and another one by the director and cinematographer. It also includes seven deleted scenes and an alternate ending,, as well as the trailer and a behind-the-scenes featurette.
