I don’t get it. In a year, when you have Wicked: Part 1, how is Emilia Pérez the best musical of the year? Let’s look into it.
Zoe Saldaña plays Rita, an underpaid and underappreciated lawyer. She is approached by a brutal Mexican drug cartel leader, who gives her an offer she can’t refuse—a massive pile of untraceable cash. The ask? The cartel leader wants to escape his criminal life before he’s taken out by transitioning into a female…Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofía Gascón).
Rita agrees, using the criminal’s vast financial resources to schedule the transition surgery in just a few days. She fakes the drug lord’s death and relocates his wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), and children to a safe location—taking care of every detail without hesitation.
The plan works, and Emilia begins living her dream life, though she deeply misses her children. She then schemes with Rita to have them move with Emilia posing as her sister-in-law. As a woman, Emilia becomes attuned to the atrocities around her, and when a friend’s husband goes missing, Emilia helps her find closure by locating the husband’s body…amongst other bodies.
Emilia decides to become an activist, helping the women of Mexico find their missing loved ones and protect them from drugs, violence, and human trafficking. With Rita by her side, they start taking down the cartels…which doesn’t make the cartels very happy. And it’s a musical!!!
“The cartel leader wants to escape his criminal life…by transitioning into a female…Emilia Pérez.”
How can any objective musical or movie fan think Emilia Pérez is one of the best movies of the year? Call me transphobic, but the controversial subject matter is the least of the film’s problems.
As a musical, it’s God-awful. For the most part, it’s simply dialogue set to music. The worst is La Vaginoplastia, where we learn how transition surgery works. Again, it’s just an explanation of how it all works. Then there’s the philosophical discussion about transition in the song Lady. It’s an intellectual treatise on why allowing any and all to transition is essential. Intellectual is not precisely why musicals were created in the first place. With its pseudo-rap lyrics and beats, the songs and harmonies are not memorable nor worth singing on long car trips…except for La Vaginoplastia…what a romp!
The acting is sub-par, with Selena Gomez delivering the weakest performance. I don’t know Spanish, but even I can tell she struggles to sound like it’s her first language. As Emilia, Karla Sofía Gascón is stiff as a board and can’t sing. Zoe Saldaña is the only one putting an effort in, but even she can’t make horrible lyrics sound authentic.
Here’s where I get nailed politically and socially. The basic idea of the film is faulty from the start. Emilia is a former cartel leader who ordered the deaths of hundreds of people. Yes, but by transitioning, she’s forgiven? All is good? Like a flip of the switch, her former ruthless nature has transitioned to this peace-loving woman. Is that how human psychology works? Sure, she’s tested in the third act, but no. The film loses authenticity at the get-go.
Also, the messaging. Remove emotion, and Emilia’s transition was her “get out of jail free” card. Did she transition because of gender dysmorphia or out of a life sentence in prison? Should we then find her story inspiring? Also, this is a musical.
It baffles me how Emilia Pérez can be even considered as one of the best pictures of 2024…oh, I know…2024 is a crap year.
"…as a musical, it's God-awful."
