‘Emilia Pérez’ Review: A Beautiful, Hollow Mess

Jacques Audiard’s new film, Emilia Pérez, is a genre-bending musical starring Karla Sophia Gascon, Zoe Saldaña, Adriana Paz, and Selena Gomez. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews, going on to win the Jury Prize and the Best Actress Prize, awarded to all four actresses mentioned above. Read our Emilia Pérez review below. 

The story structure of Emilia Pérez is split into three acts. Act One follows Rita, a hardworking lawyer, who is offered an abnormal job by a powerful crime boss who desires to transition into a woman without the world knowing. The crime boss transitions into the titular Emilia Pérez, played expertly by Karla Sophia Gascon. Act Two showcases what Pérez sets out to do after her transition, which is to recover missing people across Mexico with the help of Rita. Act Three, Peréz is held for ransom by her ex wife, played by Gomez, leaving Rita to find out how to rescue her before it is too late. I think this structure is fine since the film is trying to fit so much at once. I like how distinct all the acts feel because you can tell when you reach a different section of the film since they all have such a high contrast from each other. 

In 2024, we’ve had a lot of musicals, Emilia Pérez being one of them. Unlike some of the other musicals to come out, like Wicked,  the musical aspects are one of the main weaknesses of the film. The songs can be grating and uninteresting, and some feel unnecessary or prolonged. There are a few highlights, such as ‘El Alegato,’ ‘El Mal,’ and ‘ Mi Camino,’ but there are sixteen songs in this musical, and most of them are not notable in any regard. The best musical moments usually came when Zoe Saldaña was at the forefront, the opener being one of the more captivating moments that starts the film with a bang. I am indifferent to most of them, except for the song ‘La Vaginoplastia,’ which is shocking in all the wrong ways. It is one of those moments that you cannot believe was put on the screen. 

For me, Karla Sophia Gascon stands out from the entire film. Even though the film is not told directly through her eyes, the weight of the film is on her shoulders. Under all of the extravagance, there is a deeply moving story of a transgender woman trying to carve out the life she has always dreamt of without losing important parts of her past. I especially found her love for her kids to be a touching part of the film, and I wish the filmmaker had honed in on more. I honestly feel like the film did not focus on her character enough, and in the end, it made me feel unsatisfied with Audiard’s lack of direction with her character. 

This takes me to my biggest issue: the ending. It feels out of left field, or like a convenient bow to tie the film together. I will not spoil what happens at the end, but I will say that it left me empty. For how big the film feels it felt like a slap in the face to just have it all end so anticlimactically. It is almost laughable because the film is often described as an epic, but the ending just falls incredibly short. That’s really the crux of the issue. Everything is almost interesting but just never gets all the way there. 

I want to take a moment to comment on the film’s crafts. They are all top-tier; the cinematography, the editing, the lights, and the technical aspects are firing off on all cylinders. It is, at the very least, a very well-made movie. It is almost inevitable, at this point, that Emilia Pérez will get nominated for countless below-the-line nominations at most awards shows, nominations I believe the film deserves. 

Emilia Pérez is one of the three major releases in 2024 about the transgender experience, the other two being I Saw the TV Glow and The People’s Joker. Emilia Pérez is, without a doubt, the most popular of the few, which to me is very disheartening. The other two films I mentioned before were made by Transgender directors to capture an individual experience, and they feel more personal and truthful than Emilia Pérez. I assume Audiard had the best intentions when making the film, but at the end of the day, it is not as interesting as the two other films mentioned. Overall, Emilia Pérez is not groundbreaking in depicting the complexities of the transgender experience, but is an audacious, wild ride that will leave you entertained. 

Emilia Pérez has already garnered four Golden Globe wins and is sure to make a splash at the Oscars in March. You can watch the film now on Netflix.

Thanks for reading. If you liked this Emilia Pérez review be sure to read more reviews here at Feature First.