Director and writer Jacques Audiard enters the awards race with a daring musical that’s part operatic and part indie character drama.
Netflix bet big on Audiard’s film which features an incredible team, with stylized dance routines by Damien Jalet in the musical segments. Jalet’s work is as breathtaking and fresh as anything I’ve seen on screen in the musical genre. It’s also worth praising actress Zoe Saldaña for adding her own moves into the routine, showcasing even greater talent than we’ve seen over her impressive filmography.
Of course, no one quite steals the show like the dual performance of Karla Sofía Gascón, the undisputed frontrunner for the Best Actress Oscar.
As a daring musical, the film’s choreography works brilliantly in tandem with the original songs and score from French songwriter Camille Dalmais and French composer Clément Ducol. Writing in Spanish proved to be a unique lens for them to filter their creativity through.
The story opens with Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña), an underappreciated lawyer working in South America… she’s world weary and clearly underappreciated. Rita works late composing the closing argument for the defense of a wealthy man who clearly murdered his wife. She works in a corrupt world where money buys freedom and her male superior takes credit for every word that she puts onto the page.
The first musical number laments Rita’s life, the injustice in her community, and her frustration with a beautiful display of dozens of dancers and actors working in unison.
The next day in court, her words are used by the male attorney who often loses his place in the speech (comically it feels all too real). Thanks to Rita’s work, the client wins the case and it’s determined his wife committed suicide… he gets away with murder. It’s a very low point for Rita who receives an anonymous call with a lucrative offer in the court room bathroom. The caller seems to know all about her work and her exact location at that moment.
Rita is nervous but she’s heard an offer for millions of dollars to do some job that remains “undefined” at this moment. Feeling less than hopeful about her career path, Rita takes the meeting and is thrown into a van with a head covering and driven into the desert.
Rita meets the voice on the phone call, her new client in none other than cartel kingpin Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (the brilliant Karla Sofía Gascón). Manitas is a very tattooed and very dangerous looking man who exudes an energy best described as foreboding. To Rita’s shock, he shares his secret desire to covertly undergo gender reassignment surgery. He reveals his chest to Rita and shares that he’s been utilizing hormone therapy for many years — unbeknownst to his wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and their children.
Rita takes on the job and receives an expenses credit card and some new luxuries. She books herself first class travel as does some shopping while hunting for the right doctors and location. It’s arguable that Rita gets a little side tracked and that is not acceptable to Manitas, so he sends his men to “remind her” to stay focused.
There are two doctor meetings which come with musical numbers, the first is a very jubilant song with doctors in Bangkok which failed to connect with many cinemagoers in my screening, and a transgender critic shared a similar opinion on the one dimensional musical number.
The sequence in Tel Aviv is much more impactful, going through the song “Lady” as Rita and Dr. Wasserman (Mark Ivanir) challenge each other in polite song verse.
Dr. Wasserman agrees to come to the desert and meet Manitas to discuss the surgery, unbeknownst to Manitas’ guards and his wife. The skeptical doctor hears Manitas’ recollections of gender dysphoria during childhood via the song “Deseo” and he agrees to perform the operation.
The death of the man known as Manitas will not be easy for his wife Jessi and their children. The family is relocated to Switzerland for their safety from other cartel gangs. Rita receives an exorbitant sum of money and escapes her old life while Manitas wakes up from surgery as Emilia Pérez and with a blank slate.
Four years later in London, Rita finds herself at a dinner table with a wealthy woman and soft voice… it takes some time before Rita recognizes who Emilia once was, and she is frightened. Rita fears for her life, knowing her secret and theorizing that Emilia may not want any loose ends.
Thankfully, the transformation was spiritual as well as physical and her intentions are pure. She wants to reunite with her children as a “cousin” of Manitas. Rita agrees to bring Jessi and the children back to Mexico City to live with Emilia, introducing her as a wealthy relative.
Jessi does not recognize Emilia and opposes the arrangement, ultimately only agreeing to return to Mexico to reunite with Gustavo Brun (Édgar Ramírez), a past lover with whom she had an affair during the later years of her marriage. This is a particularly gripping scene as Emilia learns of the infidelity and has to remain objective despite how it emotionally effects her.
While out at a restaurant, Emilia has a chance encounter with the mother whose child has been missing for some time. Emilia, who visits with Rita, asks Rita if she would delay a return to London and help her do some good in this country. Remorseful about her past, Emilia reaches out to incarcerated criminals and active cartel members to create a nonprofit that identifies the bodies of past victims.
Rita and Emilia collaborate in growing the nonprofit and recruiting donors, some of which, Rita points out, are dangerous and corrupt. Epifanía (Adriana Paz), a woman whose abusive husband’s remains were identified by the nonprofit, meets with Emilia and she is carrying a knife. Epifanía feared her husband was found alive, and she planned to finish the job.
This revelation connects Epifanía with Emilia and they form a bond that becomes romantic. Emilia seems very happy to have her new life and old family all in the same moment.
This cannot last forever, however, and Jessi’s life devolves into drugs and poor choices with the devilishly handsome Gustavo (Ramírez).
Jessi reveals to Emilia that the two plan to marry and move the family to a new home. When Emilia refers to the children as “mine” and becomes physically aggressive, Jessi flees with the children. After Emilia cuts off Jessi’s allowance and threatens Gustavo, Jessi and Gustavo kidnap Emilia and demand ransom from Rita.
This climax, while envisioned as operative, is really where the film loses so much of its charm. There was a brilliant character study and budding romance which wrestled with identity, sexuality, and responsibility. Now, we have a sort of western climax with Rita coming along with a handgun and an army of hired guns.
Arriving at the designated drop location, Rita attempts to negotiate with Gustavo. Gustavo spots the group of gunmen and a shootout is triggered. Emilia is in bad shape at this point, already missing fingers from the ransom delivery to prove they mean business.
It’s in the shootout that Emilia reveals her true identity to Jessi by recounting intimate details of their first meeting and their wedding day. Gustavo takes Jessi and Emilia to his car, throwing Emilia in the trunk and speeding away. Jessi slowly comes to realize what became of her husband and what she’s done to Emilia — Jessi orders Gustavo to pull over by aiming a gun at him. The two struggle for the gun and the car rolls over a hill, catching fire and killing everyone.
Despite driving at near one hundred miles an hour for several minutes, Rita shows up on foot to see the damage. It’s almost laughter inducing, to defy such logic for a story beat. Rita then informs the kids that she will take care of them, although no emotional attachment has been made thus far between these characters.
In closing, Epifanía marches through the streets with people who were helped by Emilia’s nonprofit… singing a eulogy and celebrating her fight with a life sized statue.
It’s a difficult film to review, nothing has been so bold or creative in this entire awards season. It feels genuinely authentic thanks to the incredible performances — notably, the cast of Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Pazreceived the Prestigious Cannes Best Actress Award.
There is a sense of delicacy with the handling of the story, and its engrossing nature will not be lost on anyone who ventures to see it. With career best work from Saldaña and the bold brilliance of Karla Sofía Gascón, this is a real awards contender across above and below the line categories.
Letter Grade: A-