Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I just saw this movie on Sundance Channel. Maybe my opinion is unique, but I think this movie is about how we all experience and deal with abandonment in life. Batia, abandoned by her parents from childhood, has in effect even abandoned herself. She sees herself in the mystery child, alone and unable to communicate. When the child disappears, did the child abandon her or did she abandon the child by yelling? As she grapples with the dilemma, she faces her own childhood disappointment which she describes to a friend in the memory of an ice cream man on the beach. In the poignant scene Batia says, "They promised he'd come back." The friend reassures, "Don't worry, he's always around." I think in the end, her friend and the child help Batia to heal and finally feel secure about drifting through the great sea of life.In the second story, will the bride and groom abandon one another when marriage, like their tiny hotel room, is uncomfortable and feels confining, or will they learn to expand in their appreciation for one another and grow even closer? I disagree with the GOOFS section because of what must have been said in the unseen part of the story where Keren explains on why they must go downstairs. I think he knew full well when the handwriting changed because at that point he handed over the paper as he acknowledges there is more to his new wife than he realized. Together they gaze at the sea contemplating.Lastly, Joy watches as parents are abandoned by children and children abandon their parents. All she can think of is crossing the ocean to get back to her little boy.I loved this movie! Maybe I healed a little bit in watching it.

When the film started I got the feeling this was going to be something special. The acting and camera work were undoubtedly good. I also liked the characters and could have grown to empathise with them. The film had a good atmosphere and there was a hint of fantasy.However, as the film went on, the plot never appeared to takeoff and just rolled on scene by scene. I was unable to understand the connection between the stories. All I could see was the characters occasionally bumping into each other and references to ships in bottles. Without that connection, I was just left with a few unremarkable short stories.Am surprised it did so well at Cannes

As much as I have admired what films that Isreal has produced (at least what I have seen,so far), I figured, there's bound to be a least one clunker in the batch. I have to admit, Jellyfish (or as it is known in Isreal as Meduzot)suffers from one too many unresolved plot lines. One plot line is a young woman who finds a nameless young girl who follows her around after a day at the beach. Another is a pair of newlyweds who seem to have a rash of bad luck on their wedding day. There are at least a couple of other plot lines, that don't even attempt at any kind of cohesive whole. The acting seems to be on the mark, but I just couldn't find any kind of narrative thread to hold it all together. Hava Nagila, indeed.

Meduzot (2007) is an Israeli film written and co-directed by Shira Geffen. (The other co- director is Etgar Keret.) The film was shown in the U.S. with the title "Jellyfish."Sarah Adler plays Batia, a fine person, but possibly the world's worst waitress. One day, at the seashore, a young girl drifts to shore, buoyed by a small plastic doughnut-shaped tube, and walks up to Batia. This little girl, played by Nikol Leidman, never speaks. We know she exists, because at one point she and Batia are in a police station, and the detective sees her too. However, that's all we know about her. Ms. Leidman is either completely guileless, or she's the best actor in the film. Her solemn, wide-eyed gaze is riveting.Several other characters interact in the film--a Filipino nurse who has been forced to emigrate without her young son, a brother and sister and their sick mother, and a newly wedded bride who has broken her leg on her wedding day.I enjoyed the movie because it was about ordinary people living ordinary lives--no soldiers, no explosions, no violent confrontations. The acting was uniformly excellent, and I was caught up in the film from beginning to end. It's worth seeing and worth seeking out. It will probably work well on DVD--most of the action is intimate and doesn't require a large screen. This film was shown at the excellent Rochester High Falls International Film Festival.