FILM REVIEW: In "Emilia Pérez", high melodrama gets lost in musical translation
Hot on the trail of Wicked redefining what a movie musical can do by dominating the press, media and box office, comes Emilia Pérez; a French-produced musical crime drama that is tearing up the awards circuit. It is now the second most nominated film in Golden Globes history, with its strong lead Karla Sofía Gascón also the first trans woman to be nominated for Best Actress in Globe history.
Emilia Pérez is the story of Zoe Saldaña’s lawyer character Rita struggling to find meaning in her life in Mexico City. She wins high-profile defense cases, ignoring her morals and getting criminals acquitted with her powerful rhetoric and hard work. Her ‘good’ work goes unnoticed by her higher-ups, but not by the powerful Cartel boss Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (Gascón). He kidnaps her and gives her a job offer; to help him leave his Cartel criminal life and relocate his wife Jessi (played by Selena Gomez) and two children, fake his own death and start gender-affirming surgery in secret. His millions of dollars in pay and intriguing story convince Rita to leave her own life behind to pursue this dream.
As time passes and Manitas begins their life as Emilia Pérez, complications arise as she misses her children, and re-enrols Rita to help recover her previous family life. In a Mrs Doubtfire-esque twist, she houses Jessi and the two children, posing as Manitas’ cousin, which leads to jealousy and parenting issues between the two of them. Emilia also begins to feel regret for her criminal past, and begins to use her personal millions, and Rita, to start an NGO to help recover persons and bodies missing due to Cartel criminal acts.
Already a darkly intriguing and complex story, Emilia Pérez is also a full-blown movie musical, complete with choreography, breaking into song mid-sentence and some quite ridiculous scenes meeting gender-affirming surgeons in Bangkok and Tel Aviv (through the song La Vaginoplastia). The musical elements balanced with the dark drama of the story just don’t quite hang together though. For instance in the song El Mal, Zoe Saldaña does a Lin Manuel-Miranda-esque rap about the corruption and hypocrisy of the city’s rich, at a fundraiser dinner where everyone is frozen in time except her. While a useful way for her to show her disdain for the people gathered, the songs generally seem out of place in context of the larger story. The songs do work in moments like "Papá", where Emilia puts her son to bed and he mentions that she reminds him of his Papa, a very touching moment where Emilia is still living a false life as their weird aunt.
The metaphor of Emilia leaving an old life behind to start a new one in two different ways is a refreshing take on the trans story, but leaves quite a lot of greater questions unanswered. She is unable to fully embrace her wife’s new life, but what did she expect when faking her own death and becoming a whole new person and lying about it? Emilia expects dominion over Jessi and the two children while still not coming clean about her identity and trying to control them through cloying love and money.
The morbidity of the song lyrics throughout are also a little lost in musical translation, as musicals thrive on melodrama, and this is just real drama, real people who were taken from their families in drug wars. Emilia, who was directly responsible for these crimes, is now trying to undo her past sins while not acknowledging her role in making them happen. The question of whether someone can fully change is given as a clear answer, but whether you can be forgiven for who you were in a past life is another question unanswered.
While some parts of Emilia Pérez do not work, the movie is still a fantastic and refreshing story, let down a little by its musical elements and some tonal choices. The performances are all given a lot of heart, and expect it to win a lot of awards based on them.
