Here's the full extent of the knowledge I had going into Emilia Pérez. It was a near-certain Oscar Best Picture nominee (and had recently won a Golden Globe), and being available on Netflix, was easy to cross off my list. It was a foreign film... partly in Spanish? It starred Zoe Saldaña, an actor I've long appreciated -- and yet have been coming to believe I've still underrated. (I've been watching the TV series Lioness, a topic I'll get to in the future when I get caught up.) Those few facts shed absolutely no light on what I was really in for.
If you are similarly under-informed, yet want the same bonkers exposure to this movie that I had, I'll give you the opportunity to jump out on this post after this paragraph. Spoiling my ending (but nothing else about the movie), I'll tell you I give it a B, and say that you really have to see it to believe it. Looking for more? Read on...
Rita Mora Castro, a talented but underappreciated lawyer, is contacted by a mysterious new client... who turns out to be a cartel kingpin. But the job Manitas Del Monte has is unexpected: locate a doctor to perform a gender-affirming surgery, so she might start a new and more authentic life. But can a dangerous criminal ever really leave that life behind?
That's just the first act of this two-hour-plus movie.
Oh... and it's a musical.
I've seen my share of musicals, so I'm of course familiar with the idea that not all of them are about light, sugary topics. But on a movie screen in particular, I'm hard-pressed to think of another musical about such a dark topic, so devoid of any comic relief, as Emilia Pérez. That's not to knock it, but to make clear that despite engaging songs, massive choreography, and bright colors, this is a heavy watch.
It is a rewarding one. The performances are truly excellent. Zoe Saldaña is great, as I expected. She gets the first musical number of the film -- the challenge of on-boarding you into what the world of this movie is going to be -- and welcomes you into that world with deft skill. Much later on, her song "El mal" is a fantastic screed against corruption, growling and venomous, really working the sounds of the language as much as the melody.
Saldaña is not alone in giving a strong performance. Karla Sofía Gascón plays Emilia Pérez, doing the best job possible in making a deplorable character sympathetic. (More on that in the moment.) Selena Gomez plays Del Monte's "widow" with deep emotion; just when you start to wonder "did they actually cast her not to sing?," she gets a big vocal showcase of a number to pull you into her character's story line.
But, I had several big impediments to becoming fully engaged with the movie. Most of them are surely "on me," but hang-ups all the same. Foremost, I often struggle to get into stories centered on criminal characters. There have been some rare exceptions (mostly in television, where the episode format allows a slide into evil -- Breaking Bad -- or the chance to flesh out more noble characters -- Dexter). Emilia Pérez never made me truly care about its protagonist; pre- or post-surgery, she's still a violent and dangerous villain solely interested in changing her life, not for any greater good.
Second, there was always the thought in the back of my mind that this movie could be read to reinforce negative stereotypes about the mental instability and/or criminal nature of transgender people. Sure enough, a quick Google of the online discourse reveals that despite critical adoration from many quarters, the LGBT+ community is mostly denouncing this movie as yet another hatchet job.
Third is the challenge of watching a musical in a language you don't speak. This is the most "on me" issue of them all, but it affected my viewing nonetheless. I felt the struggle sometimes as my eyes darted back and forth between trying to read the subtitles and trying to keep up with the dazzling on-screen choreography. Emilia Pérez is too much to take in at one time -- which can certainly be seen as a plus for many movies, but in light of my previous two concerns, feels like less of one here.
Rolled all together? Like I spoiled earlier, I would give the movie a B. I love how different it is, and what wild swings it takes at telling an uncommon story. I love the performances. But I have enough reservations about it that it isn't making my top 10 list for the year, and it likely won't be the movie I'm rooting for in the Oscar race.
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