Emilia Perez is a film like no other. When I started to watch it, I gave up after ten minutes. This can’t be for me, I thought. It’s all flash. After a couple friends mentioned how exciting a film it is, I returned to Netflix to give it a second chance. So glad that I did!
Award-winning French filmmaker Jacques Audiard wrote and directed this feature. It’s based on a 2018 novel called Ecoute by Boris Razon. Audiard is well-versed in the French thriller genre, influenced by the talented Henri-Georges Clouzot and Nouvelle Vague great Jean-Pierre Melville. Audiard’s previous film, You Were Never Really Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix, about a damaged vet who tracks missing girls, made a critical splash in 2017. His earlier feature, See How They Fall, from 1994 drew a good amount of attention from film mavens but critics’ reviews were mixed.
Emilia Perez stars Karla Sofia Gascon at first as an evil Mexican cartel kingpin who calls upon a lawyer, Zoe Saldana, to grant his most secret wish. He wants a sex change. The lawyer travels the world to fulfill his bidding. Even his loving wife, Selena Gomez, the mother of his two small children, is in the dark about this clandestine plan.
Four years pass. The mean-spirited male cartel boss is now a female do-gooder. The sex change has made her the warm and contented woman she has wanted to become… except for the loss of her wife and children. Here lies the crux of the tragic story of Emilia Perez.
This film was two years in the making. Gascon had to develop two characters, one gruff, malicious male and the other a kindhearted, attractive female. She does a wonderful job in portraying both roles. Gomez and Saldana also are extraordinary in their respective roles. All not only play traditional parts,but additionally sing large portions of the story.
Yes, sing. Much of Emilia Perez is sung. I have read that it originally was supposed to be an opera libretto in four acts. Some of the singing is not much more than talking to music. Some is full-fledged melodic singing. Plus there is dancing. The sound track at times is mesmerizing.
The production design, the mise en scene if you will, is dark and occasionally glitzy, and avant-garde at times with occasional realism. The style changes frequently and suddenly. And it’s this complicated set of looks that makes the movie’s story, and its characters, seem magical.
The critical and audience responses to the film have been generally quite favorable, but not overwhelmingly so. In Mexico, some viewers are said to be offended by the take on Mexican customs and society. I haven’t actually read any of those reviews. Emilia Perez did very well at the Golden Globes and it is assumed it will do equally well at the Oscars.
Audrey Kupferberg is a film and video archivist and retired appraiser. She is lecturer emeritus and the former director of Film Studies at the University at Albany and co-authored several entertainment biographies with her late husband and creative partner, Rob Edelman.
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