Call My Agent! The Movie

Remember the pandemic, when everyone had time to Netflix and chill? TV shows that might otherwise have come and gone became global hits, and in between the Tiger Kings and the Queen’s Gambits there was a Parisian acting agency called ASK that became a global sensation.

But by the time Call My Agent became a hit, the show’s creator, Fanny Herrero, had quit, citing burnout. Despite the clamour for a season five, it never happened, partly because the show’s stars – Camille Cottin, Laure Calamy, et al – were now top of every casting director's list. (Basically the plot of one of the episodes.)

Fans of the format and its self-spoofing celebrity cameos – Cécile de France, Isabelle Huppert, Jean Dujardin among the most recognisable – were left to cry over the diminishing returns of copycat shows in the UK, India, Italy, Korea, Turkey and elsewhere.

Five years on and this movie is the satisfying compromise the stars and Herrero, who returns to write the script, agreed to. And it says everything about the enduring standing of Call My Agent! that George Clooney has a monumental scene-stealing cameo. Eva Longoria, Laetitia Casta and Vincent Macaigne round off the celebrity involvement. But they are the bubbles, not the champagne.

Despite a hokey fourth-wall-breaking pre-credits recap of the demise of the ASK agency – jobbing actor Hervé (Nicolas Maury) fills us in on where everyone is five years later – fans will be happy that the movie doesn't take the easy route of installing everyone in a new bureau so the old rivalries can start over.

The central conceit is that Andréa (Cottin) is directing her debut feature and it is falling apart around her. To get the production moving she has to reconnect with her old colleagues including Gabriel (Grégory Montel) and the now-successful Noémie (Laure Calamy), whose relationship with the ageing Mathias (Thibault de Montalembert) is well past its honeymoon period. As an agent, Andréa took care of her clients’ often childish problems before they happened; as a director, she is a fish out of water and the one who needs taking care of. 

The upshot is so high on melodrama, big swings and plot turns that it feels like a fun extended episode of the show. It’s not going to convert newbies, but for those of us tuning in for one last nostalgic fix, it’s perfect. Herrero’s script remains true to the characters while moving them believably on. It’s more than the ten per cent version of the series, and it gets that it was the characters that made the show a hit, not the cameos.

Streaming on Netflix from Sep 10.