My Donkey, My Lover & I review — Laure Calamy shines in this French comedy

★★★☆☆
Bridget Jones meets Gallic holiday porn in this sweet French comedy about a seemingly desperate singleton who gatecrashes the family holiday of her married lover. Laure Calamy delivers a winning, ingenuous performance as the garrulous primary teacher, Antoinette, whose affair with a selfish school dad leads her, impulsively, to a last-minute donkey trekking vacation in the gorgeous Cévennes mountains (the film’s French title, Antoinette dans les Cévennes, is so much more pleasing, more direct and less cumbersome than the dopey English version).

Antoinette is, initially, stalking her man, but the film quickly shifts gears and becomes about her unfolding relationship with the obstinate donkey Patrick. As our heroine travels the transformative six-day trail (tiny echoes of Reese Witherspoon in Wild) she learns, in the silence that Patrick provides, to accept herself wholly and to realise that it is not the destination but the path that matters. Yes, it’s cheesy, but in the nicest possible way.
N/A, 97min
Curzon Home Cinema