The only person more excited about summer break than her students is Miss Lapouge (Laure Calamy), who asks the class to avert their eyes while she slips into something sparkly. The song she selects about forbidden love for the grade-school talent show is racy even by French standards, but it soon becomes apparent they’re performing for an audience of one: Vladimir (Benjamin Lavernhe), the father of one of her students, the one with whom she’s conducting a torrid affair. The promise of a romantic getaway is monkey-wrenched by unexpected news of a family vacation: a six-day hike through the Cévennes on which Lapouge impulsively books passage. She’s the only one in the group to rent a donkey, a perspicacious ass called Patrick. By the time the group catches up with Vladimir’s clan, Lapouge’s inexperience with the sport, compounded by an eagerness to blurt her ulterior motive, makes for a pleasing running gag. Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s "Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes," writer-director Caroline Vignal wisely limits the stubborn mule interplay, all of which we've seen before. Hers is a lovely summer romance, impeccably lit and designed with color in mind. And fans of Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo knew at the mention of the title what song would ring down the curtain. (2020) — Scott Marks
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