“Un grand raccourci” runs 81 minutes. That is the first thing to know about it, and the thing that decides most of what follows. Clément Devilliers and Armand Foëx directed the film from their own screenplay, and it is a comedy that keeps threatening to become a drama without ever quite committing to either. The title promises a shortcut. What the film delivers is a long way around.
Two Cousins and a Rat Problem
The setup is the cleanest thing in the movie. Two cousins watch their family restaurant slide toward closing. Their answer is not a new menu or a loan. They release rats, planning to position themselves as the pest control experts who save the day. It is a scheme built on a lie that has to stay invisible, which is exactly the kind of engine a comedy needs.
François Le Bris plays Grégoire and Jules Porier plays Corentin. The film gives them the restaurant, the rats and the plan, then asks them to keep all three moving at once.
Louise and Maeva Rig the Contest
Running beside them are Sara Montpetit as Louise and Louise Labèque as Maeva. The two young women rig the local beauty contest to promote their jewelry. Same summer, same town, same willingness to cheat a system that was never built for them.
Four young people, two schemes, one season. The film’s structure is a promise that these paths will cross, and it keeps that promise.
The Cast Around the Edges
The supporting cast is crowded. Anja Verderosa plays Candice. Igor Kovalsky plays Guilhem. Sabrina Seyvecou plays Océane. Juliette Tomyn plays Juliette. Guillaume Ercker plays Maël. Éric Frey plays Éric. Noémie Morel plays Isaure. Luana Proffit plays Manon.
That is nine names beyond the four leads, and the film does not have the room to serve them all. Some arrive, do their work and leave before you have learned what they want. This is a casting problem disguised as generosity.
What the Two Schemes Actually Share
The rats and the rigged contest are not parallel plots so much as the same plot wearing two coats. Both are frauds staged by people with no capital and no better option. Both depend on the town not looking too closely. Both are aimed at a future the characters cannot reach by playing straight.
The film understands this. It puts the four of them on a collision course and lets the collision be the point rather than the punchline.
Where the Comedy Sits
The genre listing says comedy and drama, and the order is not accidental. The jokes come from logistics — where the rats go, who sees them, what happens when the timing slips. The drama comes from the fact that none of this is funny to the people doing it.
Devilliers and Foëx write and direct together, and the film has the evenness of a shared hand. Nothing is allowed to get too dark. Nothing is allowed to get too silly.
| Element | Cousins’ scheme | Women’s scheme |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Save the family restaurant | Promote their jewelry |
| Method | Release rats, sell pest control | Rig the local beauty contest |
| Risk | Being caught as the cause | Being caught as the fixers |
| Payoff | A business built on a lie | A brand built on a lie |
The table is the film’s whole argument in four rows. Two hustles, one town, one summer.
The Four Leads Carry It
Montpetit and Labèque get the better half of the script. Louise and Maeva are allowed to be competent, which is rarer than it should be in a film about young people scheming. They are not punished for wanting more. They are just made to work for it.
Le Bris and Porier have the harder job. Grégoire and Corentin are reacting for most of the runtime — to the restaurant, to the rats, to each other. The film asks them to be desperate without being pathetic, and mostly they manage it.
An 81-Minute Film With Too Much Story
Here is the problem, and it is not a small one. “Un grand raccourci” has four leads, two schemes, nine supporting players and a convergence to stage. It gives itself 81 minutes to do all of it.
That is not enough. The first act moves. The second act starts skipping. By the time the four cross paths, the film is running on momentum rather than setup, and the audience is filling gaps the screenplay should have closed.
A tighter cast or a longer cut would have fixed this. The film chose neither.
What the Ending Is Worth
The convergence works, mostly because the four actors have earned it by then. The schemes collide, the town notices, and the film lands on the idea that a shortcut is only a shortcut if it holds.
It does not tie every thread. Several of the supporting players simply stop appearing. But the core four get an ending that fits what they were doing for the previous hour.
Where the Film Lands
“Un grand raccourci” is a good film that could have been a very good one. The premise is sharp. The four leads are well cast. The dual-scheme structure is smarter than most comedies bother to be.
What holds it back is scale. Too many names, too little time, and a second act that trusts the audience to do work the screenplay skipped. Devilliers and Foëx have made a film that knows exactly what it is about and cannot quite fit inside its own runtime.
Ranking what the film gets right:
- The four leads and the pairing of the two schemes.
- The premise, which is specific and strange in the right proportions.
- The supporting cast, which is talented and overstuffed.
- The pacing, which collapses in the middle third.
- The ending, which earns its landing without earning its setup.
The film’s best asset is that it never explains why these four would do this. It simply shows a restaurant closing, a contest rigged, and lets the desperation speak. That restraint is worth more than any joke in it.
“Un grand raccourci” is worth seeing for Montpetit and Labèque alone. It is worth arguing about for the 81 minutes it was given.
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