Movie Review - Jellyfish

Jellyfish

Starring Sarah Adler, Nikol Leidman, Gera Sandler, and Noa Knoller
Directed by Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret
Not Rated

The most often heard refrain in opposition to foreign language films is usually something ridiculous like, "I don't go to the movies to read." That's asinine; reading is required if you watch the news or sports games on TV, and even in the car commercials that come between the programming.

For the record, subtitles are usually very easy to read and are rarely distracting, and if you have a problem with them, you're probably not terribly bright. And yet you're also likely to be the multi-tasker who drives while holding a phone and cigarette in one hand and a taco in the other.

But if you can get past the subtitles, there are some legitimate concerns about the way foreign language films play in the United States. The international films we hear about in America don't usually have these concerns, but the ones you have to actively seek out often do. Namely, they can face a struggle inviting viewers from other cultures into their storytelling. Stories themselves don't vary too much from place to place, but the way filmmakers choose to present them is vastly different.

Take, for example, Jellyfish, which is structured like a contemporary American movie to a degree. For the sake of comparison, its setup resembles a Robert Altman movie, only on a very small scale. And, unlike an Altman film, the lives that unfold before us don't really intersect anywhere but at their beginning. Jellyfish is the story of three women whose lives come together at one moment, the marriage of Keren (Noa Knoller). Among her guests is Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), attending at the behest of her employer. Batia (Sarah Adler) works for the company catering the blessed event.

Once we meet the characters, they - and we - go off to discover more of their stories, why they are the way are and not necessarily how they wound up at this wedding.

But because of its short length and rather ambiguous ending, at least by our spoon-fed standards in America, you might think Jellyfish appears a little unfinished. There's a part of Batia's story that involves a water nymph (Nikol Leidman), and because she doesn't speak, we're not entirely sure what her role is, so we have to rely on the subtext. The nymph also plays a pivotal role at the end of the film, or at least we're led to believe that, but again, because she doesn't speak, it may not be abundantly clear what that role is or what this all means.

I think what Jellyfish means is that there's a story behind every story being told. Even if you attend someone else's wedding, this might not be the happiest day of her life, or even what she wants. Maybe it is those things, but either way, there's a story about why she is the way she is.

And that's not the sort of movie we tend to flock to as Americans. We like revenge and happy endings. And, sure enough, we've seen the stories behind those stories, too. This one's a little less obvious and maybe a bit more poetic.