A refreshing musical that’s a little too idealistic
After much acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival where the lead cast won the Best Actress award, Emilia Perez is finally out on Netflix for the world to see. Said to be a crime-comedy musical, Emilia Perez is a 2024 Spanish-language film by French auteur, Jacques Audiard who is known for critically acclaimed films like A Prophet, Rust and Bone and Dheepan.
As for the cast, it stars Latin talents from telenovela icon Karla Sofia Gascon and Mexican actress, Adriana Paz to Hollywood stars such as Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Edgar Ramirez.
Based on the novel Ecoute by Boris Razon, Emilia Perez follows a Mexican kingpin, Juan Manitas Del Monte (Sofia Gascon) who plans to retire and is secretly transitioning into a woman. She enlists the under-appreciated and overworked lawyer, Rita Mora Castro (Saldana) to help fake her death and organise gender-affirming surgery under the utmost secrecy.
But as she gets ready to take on her persona as Emilia Pérez, she must send away her children and wife, Jessi (Gomez) so that her actions as a drug lord cannot come back to impede her new life. With only Mora Castro being aware of her secret, Pérez gets lonely as she misses her family.
The musical elements are definitely the highlights as we cannot get over how seamlessly it is integrated into the narrative, with intense rock anthems and moving spoken-word pieces. They feel essential in representing the turmoil of the characters. The movie begins with one, setting the tone and the pace. The musical numbers don’t have a finessed music video quality. Instead, they add depth and feel like a part of the story, part of the actors’ dialogues.
There are musicals where sometimes you skip or fast forward the numbers because they act like fillers, just there for the embellishment. But that is not the case in Emilia Perez. Every moment, every song is crucial to the story. Similarly, the choreography furthers the action or at least fleshes out the characters.
The Mexican stand-off in the end paired with the haunting music truly seals the deal. But our personal favourites are definitely the rock number at the gala and the 3-way phone call. And it is Sofia Gascon who steals the show with her tenor and piercing gaze.
But while the plot is ambitious, the director’s detached perspective on Mexico’s complex social issues misses the mark. Zoe Saldana and Karla Sofia Gascon give performances of a lifetime, but Selena Gomez happens to be the weak link as she struggles with Jessi. From her rusty Spanish to holding a mic like a pop star, her Mexican mafia wife is unable to sell her story.
The initial stakes are also unclear for Rita. What is it that makes her so afraid of Emilia at the beginning? Viewers are never shown the intimacy that makes one so afraid of another person. We see it with Jessi and even Emilia. But never with Rita which is why the lawyer’s arc in the first act feels off.
On the cultural front, Emilia Perez is poorly researched and too idealistic, offering a superficial take on Mexico’s struggle with cartel violence and missing persons. These issues and their solutions are sketched from a utopic lens without any actual depth, as a prop device for Emilia’s arc.
Talking about arcs, there are also some transphobic elements such as Emilia’s transition being equated as a complete personality switch. The one time she gets violent, the “man” in her comes out, perpetuating dangerous prejudices against transwomen. The storyline around “killing” oneself and abandoning her family to transition doesn’t portray the trans community in a good light either, given the lack of balanced representation of trans stories in mainstream media.
However, we do have to applaud the valiant effort it is when it comes to Sofia Gascon, a trans icon herself getting to tell the story of an imaginary trans icon. The movie is said to be a comedy, but Emilia Perez feels more like a musical melodrama, with a sprinkle of dark humour and irony.
It is not about just the physical transition, it is also a thrilling escape from the law and the new adventure that awaits Pérez. It is sincere in its portrayal of her mindset, what she goes through and why she does what she does.
Visually, Emilia Perez is a beautifully executed film with rich colours and dynamic staging, especially during musical numbers. Even if it doesn’t fully deliver on its social themes, with plenty of charm, it leaves a lasting impression.
Read More: Emilia Perez Ending Explained
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Verdict - 6.5/10
6.5/10