Emilia Pérez has been on everyone’s radar since it made its splashy world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, winning the Jury Prize and the (shared) Best Actress award for its women ensemble (which comprises Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofia Gascón, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz). There’s no doubt that the movie, by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, is as audacious as they come — after all, it’s a musical, a crime thriller, a comedy, and a transgender coming-out story. However, despite being held together by top-notch performances, particularly Saldaña, not every part fully comes together.
Recently making its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Emilia Pérez sees Saldaña playing a lawyer named Rita Moro Castro, whose life and career aren’t as exciting or fulfilling as she would like them to be. This changes when she receives an unprecedented but lucrative offer from “Manitas” (Gascón), a cartel leader with a hair-raising reputation. The offer? To fake her death so that she can leave her life of crime behind, complete gender-affirming care, and finally and authentically live her life as a woman.
Rita agrees, and, for a few years, everything is perfect. But when Manitas, now Emilia Pérez, tracks Rita down in London, she has another request: to reunite her with the family she left behind, namely her two young sons and their mother, Jessi (Gomez).
A Career-Best Performance from Zoe Saldaña
Whether in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or in James Cameron’s high-grossing Avatar franchise, we’ve seen throughout the last decade how capable Saldaña is in roles that are as physically demanding as they are emotionally taxing. Compared to those tent-pole franchises, Emilia Pérez is arguably her most all-encompassing role yet — and she more than rises to the occasion.
As Rita, Saldaña is our window into the extraordinary circumstances of Emilia’s heightened world. Indeed, she is exhausted when we meet her, Saldaña singing and dancing in a show-starting musical number throughout which her character crafts a powerful closing argument that will help a murderer avoid jail time, all while lamenting her professional choices and the price her personal life has had to pay for them.
Here, it’s immediately evident just how sublime a performer Saldaña is, not just as an actor, but a singer and dancer as well. She moves throughout this scene — and the rest of Emilia Pérez — with absolute grace and skill, hitting all the right notes and capturing all of Rita’s nuances. The actor shows just how distinctly human Rita is; even though her character lives in shades of gray, Saldaña’s star shines impossibly bright.
Karla Sofia Gascón Is a More Than Worthy Dance Partner as Pérez
Some of Saldaña’s best scenes are, in fact, opposite Gascón. There’s a clear evolution to their characters’ relationship, which may start as a business endeavor, but ultimately becomes the beating heart of Emilia Pérez. It’s heartwarming to see how these two women’s friendship comes together and how they, initially on opposing sides of both life and law, inadvertently discover a sisterhood that makes the dark world they live in worth plowing through.
In this regard, Gascón is also fascinating to watch, as she exudes a certain brutality as Manitas and then, just as easily, displays softness and compassion as Emilia. Of course, Emilia is no pushover, and is wholly unafraid to wield the power she held as a former cartel leader. There’s a quiet fierceness that Gascón brings to the role, and you can’t help but root for her as she, in the middle acts of Emilia Pérez, tries to use her wealth and station to reunite herself with her family and, on a grander scale, bring peace to families of victims of gang violence in Mexico.
A Big Ensemble Stretches This Stylish Movie Thin
Where Emilia Pérez falters is in its insistence upon being a star-studded ensemble film. The aforementioned relationship between Emilia and Rita is great to watch, but the story bifurcates. As it puts Emilia in the spotlight, more screen time is given to Gomez’s Jessi and a romantic subplot involving Paz’s Epifanía — and, if that wasn’t enough, there’s later a violent one involving Édgar Ramírez’s Gustavo Brun.
At certain points, one can’t help but wonder whose film this is. Or worse: what kind of story the film is trying to tell. The supporting cast all do fine in their roles, even if they are slightly underdeveloped (Paz), underutilized (Ramírez), or stick out as decidedly American (Gomez). But, in trying to be a multi-faceted narrative, the result is somewhat jarring.
Overall, Emilia Pérez feels like a patchwork film, tackling as many themes in as many genres as it can. A pleasing spectacle, to be sure, particularly with how French singer Camille’s songs, composer Clément Ducol’s score, and choreographer Damien Jalet’s dance numbers gel together. What’s more, the film exhibits Audiard’s trademark full-throttle approach to the grittier elements. At the same time, a surer hand was needed here to stitch everything more seamlessly. Emilia Pérez releases in select theaters on November 1 before debuting on Netflix on November 13. You can watch it then through the link below:
Watch Emilia Pérez