Emilia Pérez – Review. By Daniel Rester.

Emilia Pérez is the kind of audacious film from a gifted director that just never quite finds the right balance despite much effort being put into it. French filmmaker Jacques Audiard (who made the terrific picture A Prophet (2009)) certainly shows ambition and panache for his latest project, but his execution as both writer and director is muddled. His Spanish-language Netflix film can’t settle on a tone or genre, shifting between campy musical, crime drama, grounded romance, and action thriller. 

Karla Sofía Gascón plays the titular character. She begins the film as a cartel leader in Mexico named Juan Del Monte before secretly undergoing gender-affirming surgery with assistance from lawyer Rita Castro (Zoe Saldaña). Emilia then leaves her old life behind, with her wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and kids thinking she died as Juan. Four years later, Emilia re-enters their lives by pretending to be a distant cousin of Juan’s. 

Both Gascón and Saldaña give powerhouse performances in Emilia Pérez. They bring depth and humanity to their characters with everything from small eye movements to emotional outbursts. Saldaña throws herself into the dancing scenes as well, with the highlight of the film involving her singing a song called “El Mal” at a dinner banquet. It’s an electric scene, with Saldaña sporting a red coat and hopping around on multiple tables. 

Gomez is fine as Jessi, but the pop star is outshined by Gascón and Saldaña in the more dramatic moments. Adriana Paz tries to bring the film back down to reality with her understated work as a woman who falls for Emilia, but she gets too little to do in an underwritten subplot. Édgar Ramírez is also underutilized as a dangerous man Jessi once had an affair with. 

Instead of really diving into Emilia’s thoughts and challenges as a trans woman, the film instead feels superficial and treats her like Mrs. Doubtfire as she tries to reconnect with her children and community in positive ways. There are moments when Emilia and Rita show flashes of complexity, as when they sit down for lunch and discuss Rita’s future, but Audiard’s writing mostly keeps them distant. Even when Emilia is first discussing transitioning with a doctor, the scene comes across as perfunctory rather than revealing. 

The flat characters can mostly be forgiven due to the strong efforts given by the cast members, but the film around them keeps misfiring too as Audiard keeps changing up the content and style. One scene might be awkward and almost silly (as when a doctor states the obvious about genitalia in a song) while another is gritty and serious (as with the climactic shootout). Individually, some of the scenes are well-staged, but smashed together they come across as poorly structured by Audiard. 

Paul Guilhaume’s cinematography is wildly uneven in capturing Audiard’s vision too. The “El Mal” scene and a few others have great attention to detail in terms of smooth camera movement and optimal lighting, and yet there are also simple two-person dialogue scenes in offices that have jittery shots and scattered shadows. 

Emilia Pérez has two great performances at its center and some inspired and entertaining filmmaking choices at times. But it always feels like Audiard is forcing six different films together instead of finding one cohesive vision. It at least takes a few risky swings though, which is more than many other Netflix movies do lately.  

Rating: 5.7/10

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