‘Jellyfish’ | 3 stars
By ROBERT W. BUTLER
The Kansas City Star
If “Crash” had been made by a magic realist, it might resemble the multi-character “Jellyfish,” the directing debut of celebrated Israeli husband-and-wife writers Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen.
“Crash” was about race and intolerance. “Jellyfish” (also known as “Meduzot”) is about … well, that’s a good question. Certainly a recurring theme is the relations between mothers and children.
But this film — it opens today at the Tivoli — casts a wide net (oh, yeah … it’s also crammed with ocean metaphors) trying to capture society’s modern malaise.
The more-or-less central character is Batya (Sarah Adler), a catering company waitress who totes trays of food at other women’s weddings but seems likely never to have one of her own. The 20-something Batya has just broken up with her boyfriend and resides in an emotional bubble. She can’t even work up tears or anger.
Her parents are no help. Her distant mother is a celebrated self-help guru whose face looks down from posters all over Tel Aviv; her father is a womanizer now living with a neurotic, bulimic woman Batya’s age.
Batya is numbly staring out to sea one day when a small girl wades onto the beach. This auburn-haired beauty (Nikol Leidman) is about 5 years old and wears only a bikini bottom and a child’s plastic inner tube around her waist, which she refuses to remove. There’s no sign of her parents. The child is pert and mischievous but evidently mute. Possibly she doesn’t speak any language. And even after leaving the sea, her hair remains wet.
Taking the mer-child to a police station, Batya is told it’s Friday and social services won’t be able to pick the kid up until after the weekend. She takes the youngster to her squalid apartment.
Another story thread involves newlyweds Keren (Noa Knoller) and Michael (Gera Sandler). When Keren breaks her leg during the wedding celebration, they must give up their Caribbean honeymoon and check into a seedy seaside hotel where the bride sinks into petulance. Leaving their claustrophobic room, Michael strikes up conversations with another guest, an attractive woman who may be a poet of some kind. Keren gets jealous.
Finally there’s Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), who left her young son in the Philippines to find work in Israel. Despite not speaking Hebrew, she becomes a caregiver for elderly women whose families are too busy or too unconcerned to do it themselves.
Like the child from the ocean, Joy is good at expressing herself without words. Most recently she has been hired by a stage actress to care for her mother, a cranky, insulting woman (Zaharira Harifai) who for all her bombast is terrified of being touched.
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.
If it sometimes veers toward portentousness, “Jellyfish” also has some spectacularly cinematic moments that will leave audiences’ mouths hanging open. Despite its characters’ angst, the film is at times unexpectedly amusing.
Not a bad effort from a couple of first-timers.
‘JELLYFISH’ ★★★
Director: Etgar Keret, Shira Geffen
Cast: Sarah Adler, Noa Knoller, Nikol Leidman, Ma-nenita De Latorre, Gera Sandler
No MPAA rating. Some dialogue in Hebrew, Tagalog and German with subtitles.
Running time: 1:18
To reach Robert W. Butler, call 816-234-4760 or send e-mail to bbutler@kcstar.com.
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