Metacritic-Rezensionen

As much as May in the Summer is a comedy — May and her mischievous sisters may remind you of The Three Stooges — it is also an intimate and demystifying look at life in Amman, where the movie was actually filmed.

There's goodwill to go around in Dabis' modestly engaging yarn, from its appealing performances to the times it zeroes in on the ways culture, tradition and individuality cause headaches and heartaches as much as comfort.

As is, it's a pleasant but unremarkable retelling of a story as old as the Dead Sea itself.

Cherien Dabis is least successful at connecting her character May's marital crisis to the rumblings of her repressed heritage.

The setting and various religious rifts are unfamiliar, if the domestic/romantic melodrama isn’t.

May in the Summer's biggest obstacle is Dabis, who isn't a strong enough actress to sell the subtle humor.

The hand-wringing and revelations are familiar from many wedding movies, but May in the Summer gains added potency from its cross-cultural tensions and the drama the characters face in reconciling tradition with modern life.

May In The Summer just never distinguishes itself in any way that isn’t superficial.

While there’s much to enjoy here – particularly in the touching performance of Hiam Abbass – there’s also plenty that is cliched and forced.

This warmly conceived but largely formulaic picture is by turns sensitive and shrill, culturally perceptive and overly broad in its dysfunctional-family melodramatics.