Jellyfish

 No comments  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

By L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / GZO

Like the marine invertebrate that gives the film its title, “Jellyfish” floats on the screen, so light it could easily be swept away. But there’s a touching, near magical quality to the film and an originality in its approach that makes it hard to shake once you’ve seen it.

The winner of the Camera d’Or at Cannes 2007 for best first feature, “Jellyfish” comes from Israeli directors Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen, the latter also is the film’s writer. It’s set in Tel Aviv, but it’s not an “Israeli” picture. That is, what happens in the film or doesn’t happen, could take place in any city around the world.

“Jellyfish” tells the story of three women — a catering service waitress, a new bride and a guest worker from the Philippines who takes care of elderly women. But unlike most such films, their lives don’t intertwine or even overlap all that much. Instead, each story drifts along with occasional bumps into each other.

[+]Enlarge

Noa Knoller is a new bride who breaks her ankle trying to escape her wedding reception in "Jellyfish." (Courtesy photo)

Noa Knoller is a new bride who breaks her ankle trying to escape her wedding reception in "Jellyfish." (Courtesy photo)

The waitress is Batya (Sarah Adler), a lonely, troubled young woman whose boyfriend has recently left her. She’s not great at her job, but seems to have nothing else in her life until, one day at the beach, a little girl wearing a plastic inflatable tube around her waist walks up to her. The little girl doesn’t talk and has the kind of gaze that movies imply is spiritual, magic or otherworldly.

When she takes the girl to the police station, they have no report of a missing child and, since social services doesn’t work on the weekend, Batya has a new friend.

The bride is Keren (Noa Knoller), who locks herself in a bathroom stall during her wedding reception and tries to climb out, falling and breaking her ankle. That means her honeymoon to the Caribbean is scratched and she and her new husband find themselves billeted in a series of unsatisfactory local hotel rooms.

Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre) has come from the Philippines to make money and left her son behind. Unable to speak Hebrew, she is adrift linguistically, but far more grounded than either Batya or Keren.

Not a lot happens in “Jellyfish.” But each of the stories has a resolution that feels right, whether jarring or uplifting. The acting by the three lead characters and the supporting cast is exquisite, creating real, flawed people, and the directors take their time and carefully select the images to tell the delicate story.

“Jellyfish” is one of those little movies that are often missed, but are just as often rewarding in their simple, direct reality, even if that reality is as misty as the one depicted here.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.