Emilia Pérez (2024) Review: A Stellar Ensemble Cast Can’t Overcome This Uneven, Awkwardly Misplaced Musical Crime Drama
It was already a week after Emilia Pérez streamed on Netflix on November 13. I watched the movie once it showed up online but decided to hold off my review until today. This Spanish and French-language musical crime drama made headlines at Cannes for taking home the Jury Prize and the Best Actress award, where the ensemble cast including Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz and Zoe Saldaña all shared the prize. It was even nominated for Palme d’Or but lost to Sean Baker’s Anora. Not to mention it was chosen to represent France for next year’s Oscars in the Best International Feature Film category.
From the award recognition to the overwhelmingly positive audience reaction, coupled with the nine-minute standing ovation at Cannes, I was looking forward to streaming Emilia Pérez, only to end up with a disappointment. I get that the movie is based on Jacques Audiard’s own opera libretto of the same name but the fact he still made it as a movie musical is strangely awkward. Most of the song-and-dance performances are poorly choreographed while looking more like a cheap, look-at-me gimmick than something that feels organically integrated into the storytelling. At one point, there’s a cringey musical number at the hospital scene where words related to surgical procedures like “vaginoplasty” and “rhinoplasty” are blurted out during the song-and-dance performance.
On paper, the story sounds potentially interesting: An underappreciated but overworked Mexican lawyer, Rita played by Zoe Saldaña specialising in keeping her clients out of prison. This, in turn, attracts the attention of an infamous cartel dealer Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón), who enlists her to get him the best doctor to perform a gender transition surgery so he can start a new life under a different name as Emilia Pérez. He’s willing to pay her a lot of money to get it done at all costs and even wants her to help him fake his death, which means he has to leave behind his wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and their two kids. He trusts Rita to carry out her work as discreetly as possible.
Everything goes well as planned but years after Rita and Emilia both start their new lives, they eventually cross paths one day. Emilia may have been a wealthy woman but she still misses her family a lot. She once again asks for Rita’s help to arrange a meeting to rendezvous with Jessi and their two kids so they can live with her. But instead of revealing her true identity, Emilia will be acting as their distant cousin.
The movie plays like a telenovela with Audiard, who also served as the writer and director, exploring various themes like redemption, gender identity and family values. Given the director’s acclaimed works in the past such as A Prophet and Rust and Bone, I was expecting Emilia Pérez will be something deeply profound. Too bad the story barely scratches the surface and that includes the most significant theme revolving around Emilia’s gender transition.
The movie also drags in places with its erratic pacing, making its 132-minute running time tend to feel like a chore to sit through. Still, what kept me streaming till the end was the overall committed performances from the ensemble cast. This is especially true with Karla Sofía Gascón, who excels the most in her sympathetic role as the titular Emilia Pérez. She also shares great chemistry with Zoe Saldaña, who gets to strut her Spanish and French languages throughout the movie while giving an equally captivating performance as Rita. Then, there’s Selena Gomez, who delivers solid support as the frustrating Jessi.
Emilia Pérez is currently streaming on Netflix.
