Following a just broke-up woman searching for support, a visiting Filipina worker struggling with the language and even harder to reach her son back home, an injured newlywed and an embittered grandma (amongst others), Jellyfish uses dream sequences and a couple surrealist ploys to get at the random connections between all these characters, and the interconnections lost.
Director Etgar Keret has a surprisingly deft touch with the material, lending a calm hand to a jumpy, gleefully discombobulated story and showing off Tel Aviv’s bright sandy beach walks and hectic urban interior. While the film doesn’t necessarily cohere 100 percent (as might be expected in a tale of serendipitous misconnection), there are still emotional peaks and, as opposed to a French malaise, a great deal of Israeli matter-of-factness and “oh-well-life-goes-on” charm.
The central image of the jellyfish is apt; if you look from afar this film is graceful and effortless, if you want to touch you might get stung by the loosely barbed ends. Beware.
Grade: B
Jellyfish releases in select theaters April 25.