An offbeat, whimsical, charming, and poignant Israeli film, husband-and-wife directors Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen's Cannes award-winning Jellyfish explores how people are pushed and pulled by conflicting emotions (just like the titular fish by the ocean waves) through interlaced vignettes about various characters facing challenging situations. After a bride injures her leg at the wedding reception, the newlywed couple change their honeymoon destination from a Caribbean holiday to a rundown local hotel, where the husband strikes up a conversation with a female writer (who may be there to commit suicide), arousing his wife's jealousy. A Filipino woman takes a job as a companion to an elderly woman estranged from her actress daughter, but then worries about having left her own son back home. And a young woman not on the best of terms with her parents takes a maternal interest in a beautiful little girl wearing nothing but a life preserver, who emerges from the sea. Parent/child relationships are the overriding thematic concern in Jellyfish, which employs gentle humor, some sharp satire (as in the depiction of a hilariously modernistic staging of Hamlet), and even periodic infusions of slapstick and surrealism to achieve a fine balance between the serious and the comic. A beautiful film that gradually draws the viewer into a shimmering, ever-changing emotional world, this is highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an interview with the directors. Bottom line: a small but solid extras package for a fine foreign film.] (F. Swietek)
Jellyfish
Zeitgeist, 78 min., in Hebrew w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.99, Sept. 30 Volume 23, Issue 6
Jellyfish
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