My Donkey, My Lover & I

Another French film where a female director picks up every negative stereotype about women and latches on like a donkey foal to his mother's teat. On an impulse, Antoinette decides to rent a mule and, uninvited, follow her lover who's with his wife and their daughter on a hike through the Cévenne mountains in Nowhere, France. (Is it really a French film if infidelity isn't at the heart of the plot?) Her decision is not just a bad idea in the story, it's a bad idea **as** a story. We're meant to believe that the film is about Antoinette's relationship with her rented donkey, but in fact the movie does little more than show Antoinette sobbing uncontrollably at every challenge, proving herself inept at any physical activity, and repeatedly getting herself into trouble only a man can get her out of. The donkey may not be the star of the movie but it's the only character who's not an ass. If a male had made this movie he'd be justly accused of rampant sexism, but that it was written and directed by a woman makes it even worse. Oh well, at least the music and Laure Calamy were good.