New Yorker best-selling author May is flying back to Jordan her home country accompanied by her two sisters Yasmine and Delia to plan her upcoming wedding. Her fiance remained behind and plans to arrive just before the ceremony in three weeks time. Her Jordanian mother, long divorced from her American Diplomat father has found God and become a Born-Again Christian. Her religious fervor may give her joy but it doesn’t stop her making it hellish for her ex-husband remarried to a much younger woman, or to May who has chosen to marry a secular Muslim.
It’s quite the dysfunctional family. One sister is ditsy, the other a closeted lesbian, the father is self-absorbed and inconsiderate, the mother is bitter with everyone and everything, and the fiance ….. well, he’s just a voice on the other end of the phone, and May never ever seems like an excited Bride to be about to marry the love of her life. She’s the one who ‘has it all’ but it certainly hasn’t made her happy
The movie starts out with an energy of a fast paced multi-cultural family melodrama, but then as soon as May’s enthusiasm for her forthcoming nuptials wan, so does ours too in the aimless plot that follows.
Written/Directed by Cherrien Dabs who also played May, its a disappointing follow up to her successful award-winning ‘Amreeka’. It does however at least show how beautiful parts of Amman are, and how its culture is worlds apart from that of the West.
★★★★
Labels: comedy. drama, Jordanian, Sundance
