The Netflix original Emilia Pérez is a sweeping musical melodrama that explores the toll of the violence on Mexico. Four women each ache for a fundamental change in their lives: one to be rewarded in money and status for her talents, one to be reunited with an old lover, one to resolve her husband’s disappearance and one to emerge in a different body. The film is very well-acted and expertly made.
Wikipedia describes Emilia Pérez as a “French musical crime comedy“, which is only accurate to a point. Its director and the author of the source novel are indeed French. The story is mostly set in Mexico, with stops in London, Lausanne, Bangkok and Tel Aviv. The dialogue is in Spanish and English. And it stars four actresses from the US, Mexico and Spain.
Zoe Saldaña, Karia Sofia Gascon, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz shared the Best Actress award at Cannes. We see the story unfold through Saldaña’s eyes, and Gascon’s character drives the story. Gomez has a smaller, but important role, and Paz has the least to do.
The entire movie pivots around a a huge surprise early in the film, so I’m not going to spoil it by talking much about the plot. Suffice it to say that Karia Sofia Gascon’s particularly brilliant performance is uniquely challenging.
I’m not a fan of musicals generally, but the musical numbers are good and well-staged. Most arise organically from the story, which I prefer, as opposed to “and then they break out in song”, I don’t think any of the songs will become standard show tunes.
The director, Jacques Audiard, paces Emilia Pérez very well and makes the Mexican scenes especially vivid. He directed two films that ended up on my best-of-the-year lists, A Prophet and Rust and Bone.
While I admired, the filmmaking, the story, somewhere between operatic and telenovela, was a little soapy for my taste.
Emilia Pérez is streaming on Netflix.