Emilia Perez channels the transformative power of the musical for a film about the power of transformation. Jacques Audiard’s Cannes-decorated movie is a stirring fairy tale about a man who becomes a woman after having the modern equivalent of a magic potion: gender reassignment surgery.
Manitas, however, is no ordinary man. He’s a drug cartel leader from Mexico who has tonnes of dirty money earned through slaughter. When he hires the lawyer Rita (Zoe Saldana) to find the right doctor for him, she is terrified but interested too. Keen to make serious money, Rita helps Manitas transition into Emilia Perez and resettles his wife Jessie (Selena Gomez) and their children.
Rita doesn’t initially recognise Emilia (Karla Sofia Gascon) when she makes a comeback and demands to be reunited with her children. Nor does Jessie. The film carries off its suspension of disbelief through seamless transitions into musical numbers.
Characters break into song in the middle of speech; dialogue is rapped out rather than spoken; sets are transformed into soundstages at a finger’s snap. The soundtrack, by Camille and Clement Ducol, doesn’t get in the way of the plot as much as lifts it when the contrivances begin to show.
Emilia Perez, which is France’s submission for the Best International Feature at the Oscars, has been released in India on MUBI. The film is almost entirely in Spanish, in keeping with its Mexican backdrop and the nationality of the trans actor Karla Sofia Gascon, who plays both Manitas with heavy prosthetic make-up and the modish Emilia.
Audiard’s screenplay is based on his own libretto, which in turn is adapted from Boris Razon’s novel Ecoute. The theme of transition goes beyond acquiring a new body. Manitas is not merely reborn as Emilia, but appears to have acquired a noble soul too.
Emilia discovers a new purpose that nudges her towards sainthood. But Jessie’s own effort to strike out on her own with her boyfriend Gustavo (Edgar Ramirez) reminds Emilia that she hasn’t entirely been rid of Manitas. The film’s valourisation of Emilia isn’t always fair to Jessie, whose story arc is subservient to Emilia’s needs.
Although named after its heroine, the movie has two powerful performances by Zoe Saldana and Selana Gomez. Saldana is the movie’s real star, compelling with the drama as well as the musical passages and sparkling in the kind of role that is not always available to her.
The 132-minute film leaps from possibility to implausibility with verve, shimmying along on the strength of its unusual premise, dazzling visuals and its wonderful women. While set in an identifiably make-believe world, Emilia Perez crystallises the dreams of trans people stuck in bodies they desperately want to escape, waiting for someone like Rita to come along.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!