Emilia Pérez Review: Selena Gomez's stylistic queer musical crime drama fails to deliver an impactful trans story

“Man. To woman. Woman to man”, sing a bunch of doctors in Bangkok whIle describing gender confirmation procedures (which the film calls ‘sex change operation'). The demented-looking nurses stare into the camera saying words like “Vaginoplasty” and “Rhinoplasty” on screen. I was quite confused about the intention of the scene. Is it trying to normalize these procedures or use them as gimmicks for a musical number?

Emilia Pérez Movie: Plot

The horrors of surviving gender dysphoria—going through hormone therapy, gender confirmation/reassignment surgeries is reduced to a South Park/Saturday Night Live sketch where a bunch of doctors dance and say words like “Vagina to Penis. Penis to Vagina” in the most unironic way possible. This isn't even the film's biggest problem.

Zoe Saldaña plays Rita Mora Castro, a Black Latina lawyer who is tired of her clients making her clear up their dirty business. “Bitches at the work ask me when I will have my new law firm/I say, when I am not Black”, Rita sings in a musical number.

Emilia Pérez Movie: Performances

A Mexican drug kingpin Manitaz (Karla Sofía Gascón) requests Rita to help him transition into a woman and send off his wife Jessie (Selena Gomez) to Lausanne, Switzerland while he gets a gender confirmation surgery in Tel Aviv. Years later, Manitaz, having given up her dead name, returns as Emilia Pérez, begging Rita to help her reunite with her kids.

Jessie, Emilia and Rita live under the same roof in a mansion in Mexico. This while Jessie is blissfully unaware that Emilia, who is pretending to be the aunt of her kids, is actually their father. To make matters worse, Emilia decides to correct her ‘errors’ by starting an NGO to bring a social reform to combat rising cases of murder and disappearances in Mexico.

Emilia Pérez Movie: Writing And Direction

Things go south when Jessie finds a new lover Gustavo (Édgar Ramírez) much to Emilia's dismay. Soon, Jessie decides to move out with her kids to a new mansion, as Emilia clutches at straws, trying to stop this separation. Will Jessie find out the truth about Emilia? More importantly, what exactly is Rita's motivation to stick by Emilia?

The biggest gripe of this critic with the film is that it uses trans identity as a plot device to shock the viewers. Barring a song where Manitas shares the trauma of suffering from gender dysphoria, we don't really see a nuanced exploration of what it means to be trans in an oppressive country.

Emilia Perez Movie: What Works, What Doesn't

What works well for Emilia Pérez is just how critical it is of the Mexican government. The collusion between the drug cartels and politicians is critiqued sharply via a dance number where Rita (Saldana) calls out everyone in the Mexican government cabinet—from the Minister of Education to Minister of Culture for their “contracts being real” but “schools being fake”.

What doesn't work for the film is that in its pursuit of being edgy and stylistic (think J Balvin-esque Spanish dance numbers, rap songs), the film forgets to treat trans issues with the kind of seriousness and gravitas they deserve. The classic example being the split-screen where Jessie and Emilia argue with Rita which is apparently played for laughs. Watch Emilia Pérez only for its stylistic themes.

Star rating: 3 / 5 stars