Directed by Jacques Audiard | Written by Audiard, with Thomas Bidegain, Nicolas Livecchi, Léa Mysius, based on the novel by Boris Razon | 132 min | ▲▲▲△△ | Netflix
This is one of the most unusual features I’ve seen in years, and for that reason it deserves your attention. I would argue that it’s not entirely successful in what it attempts, but the effort, wow — a musical set in the Mexican cartel world, one with strong queer themes while also being a full-on suspense thriller. It’s a fascinating film but it simply can’t do all those things simultaneously and well.
Full disclosure: This picture may be playing in genre cliches unfamiliar to me — this is my first musical in Spanish, and I suspect it’s quite indebted to the melodrama of the Mexican telenovela.
Emilia Pérez is from maverick French filmmaker Audiard, who’s never been afraid of adapting challenging literary material to film (Rust & Bone, The Sisters Brothers). This time the focus is on three women.
Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldana) is a Mexico City lawyer tired of representing terrible, violent men. She’s abducted by a gangster, Manitas Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón), who wants Castro’s help to transition to a woman, as well as hide her children and wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez). That’s exactly what Castro does. Four years later Castro is practicing law in London when she meets a glamorous woman at a dinner party — who strongly resembles world number one women’s tennis player Aryna Sabalenka. It’s the former Del Monte, now living as a woman, Emilia Pérez.
Pérez now wants Castro to help return her sons to Mexico so she can see them. Soon Pérez welcomes the boys and their mother to her home, posing as a cousin to Del Monte, who was reported dead in the ongoing drug war.
And this is all just in the first act! The energy of this crime epic/musical is intense, skating through a whole lot of unintentionally funny moments as its plot pretzels. It peaks early, loses steam through the middle, and then picks up again in the last 20 minutes.
The second-act sluggishness is also tied to many of the musical numbers. I’m well aware that musicals use songs to better illustrate the inner lives of characters, but too often here the songs are disposable pop with maudlin lyrics, elucidating emotional turmoil that was already obvious through the actors’ non-singing work. If this hadn’t been a musical with soapy turns it could’ve been a terrific thriller juiced by a genuinely modern twist, a key protagonist’s trans experience and how being true to themselves changes their need to do good in the world.
As it is, that concern is a subplot — Pérez and Castro start a non-profit to help locate and identify people murdered in cartel violence, though the question of whether Pérez can truly leave behind the violence in her past comes up again later on.
Karla Sofía Gascó is astonishing as Pérez, managing to effortlessly convey considerable physical threat while also never losing our sympathies for the things she wants in life. She gets a musical scene with one of the child actors that’s genuinely heartbreaking. Zoe Saldana manages a serpentine intensity I’ve never seen from her many Hollywood franchise appearances, and proves she’s a terrific singer and dancer — one of the best musical moments in the film comes at a fundraising dinner, where Castro points out the crimes of attendees in song. Selena Gomez has the least to work with in her role as Jessi, but still manages to make a solid impression.
Emilia Pérez is garnering some North American awards chatter, which I can understand even as it won’t likely trouble my Best Of list. In a cinematic era notable for its lack of risk-taking, this film kicks hard against the status quo.
