'Emilia Pérez' review: Selena Gomez's ambitious film is chaotic, underwhelming
What's the story
The musical crime-comedy film Emilia Pérez made immense noise at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, both for its audacious themes and the strength of its cast ensemble.
Finally released in India on MUBI, it starts gloriously and features several magnificent musical set pieces, but as the story progresses, it ends up as a confused, annoying, disappointing mish-mash of several genres.
Story
The film focuses on a woman's transformative journey
The film follows a lawyer named Rita (Zoe Saldaña), desperately looking for a transformative career opportunity.
One day, she receives a strange, seemingly ominous phone call that promises her just that, and she's hired by Manitas, a drug kingpin who wishes to undergo gender-affirming surgery.
Rita agrees to help, becoming inextricably linked to Manitas, who changes her identity to Emilia Pérez after the surgery.
#1
Flashy, enjoyable musical pieces hook you in
When the film started, I was instantly drawn in by Saldaña's bewitching acting and the inventiveness of the musical pieces (there are several of them).
In the first scene itself, Rita breaks down an important legal case through a musical piece, and although most of the numbers are in Spanish, you don't need to know the language to enjoy these flashy interludes.
#2
A dreamlike quality dominates it most of the time
Most of the sequences unfold like a surreal dream, and the camerawork ensures that the film looks dazzling almost all the time.
Some of the strongest sequences demonstrate characters' thoughts flowing like a stream of consciousness and gradually building up as a rousing musical.
Moreover, since trans actor Karla Sofía Gascón portrays the eponymous character, the authenticity is on-point.
#3
No cardboard female characters
It's a tragedy that the film doesn't capitalize on it, but Emilia Pérez has some strong themes of female solidarity and friendship.
Rita and Emilia's relationship is formed through fear and power dynamics, but then gradually evolves into a deep friendship that comes on its own in the final act.
Strong female characters—with minds of their own and agency—drive the plot of Emilia Pérez.
#4
Touches on grief and loneliness
Some of my favorite moments in the film involve almost completely dark screens, the central characters glowing in faint glimmers of light, while a soothing melody plays on.
One such scene features Emilia talking to her kids and reminiscing about their time together.
The kids don't know the truth, so an overwhelming sense of grief overpowers both Emilia and the children.
#5
Problems: Becomes disjointed soon and stays that way
However, the cracks in this disjointed, wobbly screenplay begin to appear soon enough.
After a great start and signs of a surefooted, suspenseful story, the film begins to lose steam and completely gives up.
The film, then, runs on autopilot, and director Jacques Audiard becomes unsure of the direction he wants to take and the narrative path he wants to build.
#6
The weak writing derails the entire plot
After the first 40 minutes or so, Emilia Pérez somehow absurdly turns into a trainwreck, and the viewer is expected to just go along without asking any questions.
Some conflicts have extremely easy resolutions, characters behave absurdly, twists and new characters enter the story unnecessarily.
A suspense drama, a crime actioner, a trans story—Emilia Pérez wants to become all of this, all at once.
#7
Planning to watch it for Selena Gomez? You'll be disappointed
Minor spoiler ahead.
In the third act, Emilia meets a woman, and in the next scene, they start a relationship.
This comes out of nowhere, makes little sense, and is needless in a film that could have easily gone in numerous other directions.
Selena Gomez, who plays Manitas's wife, has absolutely nothing to do, and her character suffers from weak, half-baked writing.
#8
Does nothing for its queer themes
It's tough to shake off the feeling that EP does a disservice to its central theme by not exploring the themes of trans identity properly.
The film glosses over key elements that should have been discussed vis-a-vis trans experience, but despite Emilia being the central character, this doesn't happen.
A series of disjointed events stitched together define Emilia Pérez.
Verdict
Can safely skip it; 2/5 stars
Emilia Pérez is audacious and purposely ridiculous and has three good actors at its disposal.
However, the plot swerves constantly, the runtime feels much longer than it is, the characters remain largely unmemorable, and the film leaves you dissatisfied and underwhelmed.
In fact, it feels like the musical pieces are one film, and the rest of the scenes are another.
Easily skippable.
2/5 stars.