ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
By Owen Glieberman
September 28, 2001

In movies, the word escape too often means the junk-calorie narcotic of empty blockbusters. But what of the all too human escape of light tales delicately told? Kissing Jessica Stein is one of the most winning romantic comedies in years, in no small part because the heroine, a Jewish variation on Annie Hall crossed with Ally McBeal, appears to be discovering, and fighting, her own passions in nearly every scene. Based on a play by its two stars, Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen, the movie, in essence, is the fancy-free tale of an adorably neurotic, heretofore hetero Manhattan copy editor who learns that she's not quite as straight as she thought, but the relationship between tentative, nervous Jessica and leonine, lipstick-lusty Helen turns out to be every bit as unpredictable as it is charming.