Israeli co-directors Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen's ensemble comedy drama Meduzot (aka Jellyfish, 2007) weaves together multiple seriocomic tales of intersecting lives, set against the deep azure backdrop of Middle Eastern seascapes. Affording equal emphasis to each tale, Keret and Geffen first hone in on Batya (Sarah Adler), a young woman employed as a caterer, whose firm places strongest emphasis on weddings. As the film opens, Batya breaks up with her boyfriend, and struggles with her
supremely dysfunctional, argumentative parents, who correspond with her only by leaving periodic messages on her answering machine. Her life takes a most unpredictable turn when she happens upon a tearstained little girl (Nikol Leidman) who wanders out of the ocean, wearing only a pair of panties and toting an inner tube -- origin unknown. The foundling gravitates magnetically to Batya and refuses to separate from her. Meanwhile, at Batya's latest assignment -- the Hebrew wedding of Michael (Gera Sandler) and Keren (Noa Knoller) -- the gorgeous bride breaks a leg while attempting to escape from a locked toilet, thus inevitably delaying her honeymoon in the Caribbean. Also present at the wedding reception is a Filipino caregiver, Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), saddled with an array of grouchy, snotty elderly clients who make verbal barbs in Hebrew that she cannot understand. In her private life, Joy struggles with geographical estrangement from her young son -- who still resides in the Philippines -- and remains completely aware of the irony that she's caring for nonfamilial dependents but virtually abandoning her own flesh and blood. And in yet another substory, Malka (Zaharira Harifai), one of Joy's octogenarian clients, gripes and moans about her own actress daughter's participation in an "experimental" version of Hamlet but demonstrates her own ability to reassure and encourage Joy. The ocean -- recurrent throughout the picture -- adds an allegorical layer to the proceedings; in the hands of Keret and Geffen, it symbolizes the narrative juggle of multiple lives, and the lack of self-determinism inherent in any -- the idea that all are wholly subject to the caprices of fate. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Jellyfish, with its pervasive sense of mysticism, is anything but standard, predictable storytelling. What is it exactly? Well, you might as well ask a jellyfish.
Most of the first hour passes without much more forward motion than its namesake. But in the corners and niches of that slow development, we get to know a handful of people, crisply drawn in fast sketches.
Provides a diverting portrait of modern-day Israel, as the filmmakers eschew history, politics and religion to focus instead on more intimate and universal issues of fate, loss and the longing to connect.
This festival favourite has moments of promise but Jellyfish is lacking, has an unwillingness to completely contextualize the women in this contemporary setting
A large number of idiosyncratic and deadpan supporting characters provides amusement around dispirited women floating through sweetly satisfying meanderings.
There are sharply observed moments of social intercourse and a nice current of realistic honesty. But when I ask myself what it is that these women in the movie want, I come up with bubkes.
...the contrivances ... allow the filmmakers to tell the stories of a number of different characters who would otherwise have no business being in the same film.
The directors infuse the film with a short story's spare dialogue and tight pacing -- the running time is all of 76 minutes -- while subtle visual motifs and judicious moments of magical realism demonstrate cinema at its most elegant.
Although its title might have some assuming this is a cheap remake of a bad horror B movie from the '50s, Jellyfish is actually quite a reflective and pensive picture.
Although the "hyperlink" drama that features a lot of interconnecting storylines has become a common staple of the arthouse, "Jellyfish" manages to be a weird and memorable creature all its own.
These interlocking stories don't add up to a conventional narrative. It helps to think of Jellyfish as a tone poem. And like the invertebrate that is its namesake, the film is by turns beautiful, stinging and rather shapeless.
Light on its feet, deeply human, and fresh in style, this French-Israeli co-production serves up an engaging tale about a group of women struggling with daily life in contemporary Tel Aviv.
Shira Geffen's script is a poignant intersection of the regrettable past and the transitions that must occur to move on. In this 60th-year celebration of Israel, this film feels like the whole country.
"Jellyfish" starts with Batya(Sarah Adler) kicking her boyfriend out of their apartment but has second thoughts which affects her job at a catering hall where Michael(Gera Sandler) and Keren(Noa Knoller) are having their wedding reception. On what should be their happiest day, Keren breaks her ankle, canceling their
honeymoon to the Caribbean, instead forcing them to stay near home at a hotel in Tel Aviv near the sea. At the beach, Batya goes to console herself where a young girl(Nikol Leidman) walks out of the sea. And Joy(Ma-nenita De Latorre) is a nurse from the Philippines, working in Israel as a caretaker for elderly patients... "Jellyfish" is an unassuming and perceptive drama with some magical realism thrown in. While one plotline is predictable, all three intersect occasionally(Batya and Joy run into each other a couple of times) but never quite gel to form a complete picture. However, there are themes that are consistent with each, especially concerning love and how a surrogate is sometimes required to care for loved ones, be they young or old. Although we may not always have the right word to express ourselves(or the right language), there are gestures that can work just as well.
June 2, 2008
Walter M.
Super Reviewer
I agree with the positive remarks about this very good movie. Two things that lingered in my memory were: the under water scene where Batya was reaching out to the little girl and the haunting closing music.
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