May in The Summer

Cherian Dabis's May in The Summer (US / Jordan, 2013) - Having explored a Palestinian woman's difficulty assimilating into U.S. culture in her winning 2009 debut, "Amreeka," writer-director Cherien Dabis flips the script to more ambitious but less satisfying effect in "May in the Summer." Observing the upheaval that ensues when an Arab-American bride-to-be returns to the family homestead in Amman, Jordan, this warmly conceived but largely formulaic picture is by turns sensitive and shrill, culturally perceptive and overly broad in its dysfunctional-family melodramatics. Easy-viewing arthouse audiences should find "Summer's" combo of accessible, femme-centric material and exotic environs to their liking. 2013SUN. RATING: 7