Williams plays the titular character Jessica James who resides in New York City and has a boisterous personality that leaves no statement running around in her head unsaid. She's a lady bursting with confidence which is a good trait to have given that she's an aspiring playwright who's constantly getting rejection letters from places that she submits her work to. But if you think that gets Jessica James down, you don't know Jessica James. She just keeps on submitting her pieces to anywhere she thinks they could gain some traction while also teaching a playwrighting course for youngsters as a day job, both of which are tasks she's able to get through thanks to her undying and life-long love for the world of theater.
Of course, that doesn't mean Jessica James is adverse to any kind of problems. Actually, she's been plagued by her recent break-up with Damon (Lakeith Stanfield), she just can't get this guy out of her dreams or her social media feed, she's still fixated on him even after they broke up. But hey, maybe her work will keep her more concentrated, ditto for this new guy she's maybe sorta kinda seeing named Boone (Chris O'Dowd), a recently divorced app developer who manages to sometimes keep up with Jessica's extremely truthful and frank way of speaking. In other words, Jessica James is quite the determined individual who has a lot of stuff to juggle in her life right now.
This particular character is one that affords Jessica Williams the chance to deliver a star-making turn as she makes the confident nature of Jessica James something that just seems to come as natural to this character as breathing or blinking. The way Williams just matter-of-factly delivers lines that have her character proclaiming her own awesomeness is exceptional and the performance gets some extra layers to it when Williams proves to be just as adept at portraying Jessica James being more awkward and restricted when she returns to her hometown. No wonder this individual developed such a confident demeanor in New York considering she's spent so many years of her life being suffocated by the feeling of being small where she grew up, especially in regards to being in the middle of her parents elongated marital turmoil.
Jessica Williams makes Jessica James a fully-formed character capable of making the viewer laugh and emotionally invested in her plight in the very same scene, it's an overall terrific performance. Similarly, Chris O'Dowd turns out to be a great foil for Jessica James to bounce off of in numerous scenes since he seems to be one of the few human beings who can keep pace with Jessica's frank and blunt nature. Plus, Williams and O'Dowd's characters have some really cute romantic scenes (like a rendezvous at a roller rink that Jessica James struggles with) that benefit greatly from these two's well-done performances. Noel Wells and Lakeith Stanfield turn in similarly strong turns in the supporting cast.
The consistently well-done cast works with a screenplay by James C. Strouse that has some memorable pieces of dialogue to it but also suffers from a plot structure that feels more episodic than it should as well as a third act that concludes with a series of scenes that feel too big in scale and overly tidy for a movie clearly aiming for naturalism. Strouse also directs the project and while his direction on a visual level feels generic, he handles the actors quite well as evidenced by the high-quality lead performers. The Incredible Jessica James is more pleasant and agreeable than outright incredible but it does have some really clever scenes and superb performances to its name, especially in lead actor Jessica Williams who really does come into her own as a leading performer here.
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