Set in Mexico, Emilia Pérez opens with Rita (Zoe Saldana), a dissatisfied lawyer who is given the opportunity to become rich by helping the head of one of the country’s biggest cartels to change gender and become a woman. But by doing so the drug lord hides her new identity from her wife and children who believe their dad has been found dead. The drug lord becomes Emilia Pérez, and four years after her transformation wants to reconnect with her children, posing as their aunt, in this Spanish-language crime drama musical that collected a joint award for the film’s four actresses, and the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Emilia Pérez is a journey through changing identity. Not just of the body, but of the mind. Choosing a new life is as much about a new body as it is about escaping the world of the drug cartel. As the film tells us at one point changing the body changes the soul, and the film is about showing how the character of Emilia Pérez changes as a person throughout the film. In turn, the film also shows a change in aesthetic often jumping between musical, tense crime drama, and family melodrama.
The film asks whether we are able to escape the past, using the trans experience as a platform to ask that universal question. It is a journey that asks through this transformation can Emilia leave her past behind her, and if so does she have to leave everything. For instance, posing as her aunt, her children are no longer hers.
The film is a wild ride that takes you through various emotions and genres as the musical style is constantly changing. Each choice is inventive and powerful. The opening number features Zoe Saldana walking through the Mexican streets expressing her frustration with her job, as bypassers exclaim her thoughts and fears. It is a clever idea that propels you forward in your seat, with both a crisp image with a song that acts as exposition but engages you through the music. Other songs are in your face, with strong diction, confronting the camera like Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables, whilst some are sombre and more emotional expressions of grief and sorrow. The musical style is constantly changing, much like the central character who is going through a journey of redemption and rediscovery, in this bonkers blend of genres and tonal styles.
In this blend, the film suffers from tonal whiplash, and whilst each is compelling, they are at times unable to fuse together well, in the latter scenes of family melodrama it sometimes forgets the darker tone of the opening. In this sense, it is hard to get to terms with what director Jacques Audiard is doing. Whilst it is stylistically admirable and enthralling – there is a total wackiness about the whole thing, I wasn’t entirely sure whether the film was going for a more serious tone than the comedically odd moments it provides. If it is meant for this wacky and comedically disarming tone, it clashes with the more serious tone conveyed in its messaging. There is a fun time to be had if you engage with the film’s more light-hearted elements but you can’t help but shake that it is thriving for something greater than light entertainment.
Emilia Pérez struggles most apparently at a writing level, characters are paper thin and aren’t necessarily explored to a depth in a narrative as heavy as this is asking. For instance, the druglord figure appears and professes his wish to get gender reassignment surgery, but you don’t get a sense of how his life has been beforehand and why he wants this transformation. In this new life, Emilia doesn’t confront her past life, instead, her sex change is presented as escaping her past without dealing with the consequences of her actions, whilst a subplot about her helping wives of the drug cartel is meandering and directionless without any sort of solution. Only at the film’s fiery conclusion does it start to sow the seeds of dealing with who this person is as she confides in her ex-wife Jessi (Selena Gomez).
The film is held up by strong performances in what can be a wacky, overstuffed picture that tries to do too much in genre narrative. Zoe Saldana gives one of the strongest performances of her career, despite her character having little to no agency. Karla Sofía Gascón’s portrayal of Emilia is nuanced and layered and is a big reason why the film will succeed for people. Meanwhile, Selena Gomez is also delivering great work as a stranded single mother who often feels helpless. All three help tie together a narrative which is often pulled in contrasting directions.
Nevertheless, the film is full of frenetic energy, full of pace, zing and pizzazz. It is a film that will hold your engagement and the heightened style adds to the enjoyment of the film, especially in the musical set piece. Although the style at times struggles to deal with the number of clashing genres, it provides a unique style that should be encouraged, in what is an audacious film with almost every facet. Which at times verges on something greater, especially in the more awkward moments where Emilia is infiltrating the home of her ex-wife as the aunt figure trying to be a parent. This is where it really fulfils its premise.
Emilia Pérez is an enjoyable but messy experience. Whilst not everything works it is nonetheless an audacious film. With the film releasing on Netflix, it is almost the perfect platform as it provides a way of seeing it without the financial commitment of seeing the film in the cinema. For this reason, it’s worth checking out as it is a film that will have an audience who will buy into the themes, style and zaniness of it. However, I didn’t quite feel that it was a rounded and complete experience, instead, it was an overstuffed struggle of starting a new life.
Comments