Undescribable Perfection

The Worst Film Ever

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It's a romantic comedy, a friendship comedy, a brand new take on the single girl in Manhattan and a groundbreaking queer love story all at the same time! An exploration of the different kinds of love and connection people need. I dare you not to relate to hopelessly single Jessica Stein who decides to finally do what fed-up straight women have been threatening to do for ages: just switch to girls! Add in a handful of Jewish guilt and **young Jon Hamm** and you've got an absolutely adorable film. I've seen it many times and it never loses its charm!

That's the line uttered by a an unbearably obnoxious female (?) character who just discovered that her friend is a lesbian. I think that sums up what's wrong with this movie.Even more ridiculously, the friend says the sex is great, and the obnoxious supposedly-female character asks, "really?", to which the friend affirms.That was so implausible and so stupid, I was in tears of laughter. Because if I one day I discover that my best ostensibly-straight friend is gay, the first thing I'll ask is "Wow you're gay Bob? So how's the sex?" Bob: "Oh it's great!" Me: "Really?" Bob: "Oh yeah absolutely! You should come watch us some time! Man I'm so glad you're so cool about this!" The movie has its smart and funny moments, but come on, it jumped the shark right there.

I've never been bothered by the fact that they were never nude. In my opinion, the film is not at all about sex, it's about growth and relationships. It's Jessica Stein's realization that she is the only reason she is unhappy; she has an image in her mind of what "should" make her happy, and this film is the story of her letting go of that and taking a risk that maybe something completely different could make her happy. It's a movie about growing, not about sex.If you haven't seen it, you should. Movies have played an important role in my life and I would say hands down, this is my favorite.That's all I was going to write, but apparently you have to write at least 10 lines. I first saw this movie when I was in college and was having that whole crisis of, "What am I supposed to be doing? How do I get to the house with the 2.5 kids and white picket fence?" This movie helped me realize that you can't live your life planning for the future all the time. Find the thing that makes you happy and hold on to it. Now, five or so years later, I'm happier than I ever have been, living a very fulfilling life that I'd never imagined for myself. I'm starting a film production company that I hope will someday make films like this one.

Lets face it, more than a few female Jewish thirtysomethings in Manhattan take a stopwatch to bed to time the length of their orgasms, then ask their therapists to evaluate the mechanism of the watch, rather than the act itself, or the person with whom it was conducted.There are plenty of neurotics around, but sometimes, just sometimes, a film like this makes you feel, well, a little neurotic about them. One Woody Allen is enough.Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen get off with each other, the former, apparently because she finds most guys emotionally retarded or losers, the latter, because she is sleeping around in an unfulfilled manner. So far so good. But these women are supposedly intellectual and creative, the "decent" guy who secretly fancies her even quotes Anais Nin, implying Jessica's search for perfection relates to her perception of it, rather than perfection itself.Beyond the schmaltz and warm family scenes, particularly pleasing when Jess's mother acknowledges she knows she is with another woman, there are few home truths and little analysis of the human condition. The best vignette ended on the cutting room floor - Jackie Hoffman, who works in the same newspaper officer as our heroine, has settled down with a NJB (nice Jewish boy) and will forgo wild sex as she adapts to motherhood; she kisses Helen (Juergensen) on the mouth during a stairwell assignation at the wedding, you can see waves crashing on the beach as she experiences a taste of the medicine from this femme fatale, who has transformed Jessica's life.The two stars, who also wrote this piece, have excellent chemistry together and the ending is not as bad - or clichéd - as some would suggest. But this wasn't exactly the Jewish penicillin I'd hoped for, mind you, I might start reading Anais Nin again.