"This is an altogether delightful and refreshing comedy with a core of realism about a prissy 16-year-old Parisian who visits her down-to-earth relatives in Rome. Humor and pathos make this one of the most attractive films to come out of Italy this year. A scintillating script, in which the 14-year-old Giorgio recounts the half-year visit of his pretty cousin Mignon, covers not only the boy's infatuation with the aloof girl, but also his mother's solitude and brief amorous fling with her brother-in-law, as well as the boy's relationship with his ailing Latin teacher. There are some wonderful touches of realism, even tragedy, but they always are tempered with tender humor. The unapproachable intruder from Paris, after first trying to flee from what she considers the vulgarity of her poorer cousins, settles into the family, though she is never fully integrated into it." --Deborah Young, Variety