A cartel leader seeks a new beginning in Emilia Pérez. Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldaña) is a Mexico City Defense Attorney, who draws the attention of cartel boss Manitas Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón). Manitas wants Rita to help arrange gender reassignment surgery, so he can start a new life as his true self. Rita makes the necessary arrangements, which include relocating Manitas’ wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and two children to Switzerland and faking Manitas’ murder.
Four years later, the now-transitioned Emilia Pérez reunites with Rita in London. Missing her children, Emilia wants Rita to arrange for Jessi to move back to Mexico and live with her under the guise that she is Manitas’ distant cousin. In addition, as a way to atone for her time as a cartel kingpin, Emilia, with Rita’s help, forms the NGO “La Lucecita” to help the families of missing or murdered Mexicans. However, conflict arises when Jessi reignites her affair with cartel member Gustavo Brun (Edgar Ramírez), a union that Emilia does not approve of.
Emilia Pérez Synopsis
Emilia Pérez is a trans-themed cartel musical written and directed by Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone, Paris, 13th District), based on his Opera Liberatto which he loosely adapted from the 2018 novel Ecoute by Boris Razon. The film stars transgender Spanish actor Karla Sofía Gascón, in her first film role since transitioning in 2018, as the titular Emilia Pérez. Zoe Saldaña (Guardians of the Galaxy, Avatar) plays up her Dominican and Puerto Rican ancestry in a predominantly Spanish-speaking role as lawyer Rita Moro Castro, who assists with Emilia’s transition before helping her found an NGO.
Similar to the 1950s gang backdrop of West Side Story, the cartel-centric story of Emilia Pérez is presented in the form of a musical, with original songs by the French singer Camille and a score by Clément Ducol. Fittingly, the cast of the film includes actor and pop singer Selena Gomez as Jessi Del Monte, the “widow” of Emilia Pérez’s former identity of Manitas. Conflict arises between Jessi and Emilia as the former opts to party with her boyfriend Gustavo, instead of caring for her family.
My Thoughts on Emilia Pérez
Emilia Pérez sets its tone relatively early on as what is established as a Mexican-set crime thriller quickly transitions to Zoe Saldaña’s Rita Moro Castro rap-singing down the streets of Mexico City. Curiously it’s Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón, who get the majority of the film’s predominantly Spanish-language musical numbers, though established singer Selena Gomez does get a few musical moments to shine in the film. Arguably the song that will go down as the showstopper of Emilia Pérez is the fast-paced song “El Mal,” the performance of which sees Zoe Saldaña dancing on tables.
As a fan of unconventional film musicals, such as Repo! The Genetic Opera and The Lure, I have to admit that Emilia Pérez was a film that was right up my alley. That said, I cannot ignore the criticisms that some have levied towards the film. This includes the apparent cultural appropriation of white French director Jacques Audiard writing and directing a predominantly Spanish-language story set in Mexico. There is also certainly going to be much debate about the transgender narrative of Emilia Pérez, which seems to be merely used as a plot device with little to no real consequence. It’s not too much of a spoiler to say that the number of people in the film who know the titular character is trans can probably be counted on one hand.
Ironically, it’s probably the fact that Emilia Pérez is presented as a musical that I am not being more critical about the intricacies of the narrative. However, I also don’t feel that Emilia Pérez should be overtly politicized either. At the end of the day, the film is a musical spectacle with drug cartel and transgender themes and I am quite fine with that.