Grade: B-

Verdict: Savvy and rather sweet, despite its sexually adventurous embellishments.

Details: Starring Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen. Directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. Rated R for sexuality and language. 1 hour, 36 minutes.

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Review: When it's working on all cylinders, the spritely romantic comedy "Kissing Jessica Stein," is like "Bridget Jones's Diary" in a New York state of mind, with a lesbian-lite twist.

When it's not, the movie is yet another Woody Allen wannabe (circa the early '80s). With a lesbian-lite twist.

Jessica (Jennifer Westfeldt) is an attractive single woman with a decent job at a Manhattan magazine. She's 28, with a nudgy mom (Tovah Feldshuh) who matchmakes during temple services. Jessica's brother has just gotten engaged, and her best friend, who managed to snag a nice hubby despite being a whisker away from plug-ugly, is pregnant.

What's wrong with Jessica? Nothing a halfway decent guy couldn't fix. It looks as if she may have found him when, after slogging through a dozen or so dismal dates, she happens onto an ad quoting Rilke, her favorite poet. One problem: the ad is in the "women seeking women" section.

On a plot-driven whim, Jessica decides to answer it anyway. She meets Helen (Heather Juergensen), a bisexual gallery manager with a downtown attitude. Can Jessica make the transition from the warm 'n' cuddly stage to something sexual? And once -- if? -- she does, what will she tell her parents, her friends and her boss (Scott Cohen), a former boyfriend with whom she still has "issues"?

Westfeldt and Juergensen honed their characters while writing and performing in a play called "Lipschtick," which ran briefly off-off-Broadway. It's clear they have a good ear for dialogue. Asked what she does to be happy, Jessica replies, without a trace of irony, "Nothing. I'm not happy." Girlishly eager to convince Helen that she's doing her darnedest to become one with her possible new lifestyle, she burbles excitedly that she's discovered that lesbians accessorize.

The picture loses its tang when it lapses into a nice-Jewish-girl movie; it becomes a lot more conventional than its downtown lesbian trappings would suggest. When a nice Jewish boy like Josh delivers a straight-from-the-heart, all-the-right-words proclamation of love -- "I want to be part of what makes you happy" -- the thought occurs to Jessica that Helen may not be her ultimate love match.

"Kissing Jessica Stein" is so keen to please that rejecting any part of it feels as if you're rejecting Jessica herself. And Westfeldt and Juergensen are so likable that's hard to do. Venturesome yet unthreatening, this movie is box-office smart enough to seem cutting-edge without ever drawing blood.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution