Emilia Pérez Review: LFF 2024

Musical about a Mexican transgender cartel boss, Emilia Perez is one of the oddest releases of the year

2024 is really the year of ‘’unusual subjects to make into a musical,’’ so while Joker: Folie a Deux is still bombing box offices there’s a new surprising musical feature film on the festival circuit. A Cannes hit that was scooped up by Netflix, Emilia Perez will be coming out later this year.

Multi-award-winning French director Jacques Audiard is probably best known for his well-regarded dramas A Prophet and Rust and Bone, but he’s never been above making a risky choice. Emilia Perez is his latest work in a career that has spanned multiple genres and languages, and it’s his first film in Spanish.

Rita (Zoe Saldana) is a lawyer in Mexico City frustrated that her brilliance in the courtroom is not being recognised, when she is contacted out of the blue with an unexpected offer. Cartel boss Manitas (Karla Sofia Gascon) wants her to help him fake his own death to start a new life, but rather than simply changing his name or moving to a new country, he wants her to help him abandon his family and transition to being a woman.

When some years later Manitas re-enters Rita’s life, now as Emilia, the two wind up working together again. Rita helps Emilia reconnect with wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and their children; and Rita and Emilia start using Emilia’s money to do charity work in an attempt to rebalance some of the evils committed by the cartel. But Emilia is still keeping many secrets, and whilst she might be happy in her new identity these secrets will come back to bite her.

It’s a hugely ambitious project because yes, this is a musical with all of the main characters bursting into song at some point, with big choreographed dance numbers to boot. It works surprisingly well as it’s not exactly show tune stuff, Audiard’s collaboration with composer/musicians Camille Dalmais and Clement Ducol creating 16 original songs that all have a unique sound tailored to the different characters singing them. Captured beautifully in hugely dynamic set pieces they reflect topics such as the criminal justice system and violence against women in largely plotty, speech singing numbers rather than big catchy chorus type affairs.

The storyline is frankly ridiculous, hitting telenovela levels of drama as it genre bends, attempting to marry serious topics into the musical before veering firmly is a more recognisable, though more stereotypical crime thriller at the end. For much of the run time you do feel that were it not for the musical numbers, the film would be pretty unremarkable as a drama and certainly not something to be taken seriously as a piece of art by an auteur.

The four women featured in Emilia (the fourth is Adriana Paz who plays Emilia’s girlfriend Epifania) are all superb in their roles, Selena Gomez in particular is a revelation. This is her first dramatic role in years, and she excels as the heartbroken ‘widowed’ wife who now finds herself thrust into a really strange situation. Her song Mi Camino a showstopping, toe tapping emotive number that funnels all of her hurt and rage into a catchy karaoke song.

Ultimately though it feels like Emilia is taking itself far too seriously for something that comes across as being so ridiculous. I frequently laughed at elements that were meant to be played as sincere. The risky musical elements work really well, but the tone of the drama just always feels slightly off with a feeling of uncertainty about how we’re supposed to be receiving it, and only half-baked ideas on the central meaning of it all. It’s a massively audacious swing from Audiard with some hugely enjoyable moments, but I’m not sure it’s going to be a hit.

Emilia Perez is playing as part of the BFI London Film Festival 2024. It will recieve a limited cinema release on 1st November before streaming on Netflix from 13th November 2024