My Donkey, My Lover and I (2020)

[Jake Lipson]

Title: My Donkey, My Lover and I (2020)

Genre: Comedy

Director: Caroline Vignal

Cast: Laure Calamy, Benjamin Lavernhe, Olivia Côte, Denis Mpunga, Marie Rivière, Jean-Pierre Martins, Louise Vidal, Monsieur Fraize, Maxence Tual, Luc Palun, François Caron, Ludivine de Chastenet, Bertrand Combe, Pierre Laur, Dorothée Tavernier, Bruno Georis, Juliette Plumecocq-Mech, Patrick Mollo

Release: 2020-09-16

Runtime: 97

Plot: Antoinette, a school teacher, is looking forward to her long planned summer holidays with her secret lover Vladimir, the father of one of her pupils. When learning that Vladimir cannot come because his wife organized a surprise trekking holiday in the Cévennes National Park with their daughter and a donkey to carry their load, Antoinette decides to follow their track, by herself, with Patrick, a protective donkey.

 

[Jake Lipson]

This is a French film from 2020 which is just now getting released in the United States.

I saw it today.

It isn't a landmark in cinema or anything, but I enjoyed it. It does what it sets out to do. It is a good movie which is highly entertaining. I thought it was hilarious and laughed a lot.

The cast is charming, especially Laure Calamy as the lead. She succeeds in making her character, Antoinette, sympathetic to the audience even though she is the other woman in an extramarital affair with the father of one of her students. The movie happens when her lover cancels a planned vacation with her to go on vacation with his wife and daughter instead. She decides to follow him. I really enjoyed watching it and it was nicely filmed with good cinematography. The audience I saw it with seemed to have a good time and there was a lot of laughter going around the theater.

It seems like a majority of foreign films released in the United States are often serious dramas with awards ambitions which hope for Oscars to boost their profile. Those are great, but they don't represent the entirety of world cinema. I found it refreshing to see a foreign film come in that is just trying to be a fun comedy.

I also think it's funny that you could use My Donkey, My Lover and I as an alternate title for Shrek and be accurate. This movie doesn't have anything to do with Shrek at all, but the similarity strikes me as funny.

It is being released to digital retailers on Tuesday, so if the movie isn't playing near you, you can rent it very soon. Recommended.

 

[Bernard McNair]

I agree with Jake; a fun film that entertained for its running time.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Well, based on the title and the donkey, I will watch this.