Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldana) receives a mysterious call that offers her wealth beyond what she will ever make as an overworked and overlooked lawyer in a male-dominated firm. Despite the risks, she accepts and begins working for a notorious cartel kingpin (Karla Sof\u00eda Gasc\u00f3n). The request Rita receives is unusual: the drug lord wants Rita\u2019s help to achieve a lifelong goal of transitioning to a woman. Emilia P\u00e9rez (also played by Gasc\u00f3n) emerges, leaving behind a wife (Selena Gomez) and children who believe their husband and father died. Emilia reinvents herself as a philanthropist, but she cannot entirely leave the people she loved in her past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/em> opens with the stark credit \u201cSAINT LAURENT PRODUCTIONS,\u201d whose all-caps Helvetica Neue font may be recognizable as a part of the fashion brand led by Anthony Vacarello. Saint Laurent is the first fashion house to produce feature films, with a nascent slate that also includes works from David Cronenberg and Paolo Sorrentino. They aren\u2019t just making movies; they\u2019re aiding in the creation of Cinema-with-a-capital-C, whose auteurs have as identifiable a style as the designers in their field. While Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/em> does have some gorgeous clothing, it isn\u2019t a two-hour commercial for Saint Laurent or even for fashion itself. If you didn\u2019t recognize the label, you wouldn\u2019t suspect a luxury line was present in its creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So those who see Saint Laurent\u2019s involvement shouldn\u2019t expect the strong visual style of, say, Tom Ford\u2019s films. It has Audiard\u2019s trademark shaky camerawork, and there are a few scenes that are well shot, but there\u2019s little remarkable in its visuals. Audiard plays with lighting and sound in the musical sequences, often making it appear that there\u2019s a spotlight on the action while leaving everything else in shadow. Ambient noise fades away as the song takes center stage. It\u2019s not particularly inventive for a movie with intentions this audacious, though some scenes work better than others with the technique. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/em> also isn\u2019t the type of musical where you finish watching and immediately go to Spotify to stream the soundtrack. The music itself is fine enough, but the lyrics\u2014particularly those sung in English\u2014are overly simplistic and repetitive in a way that feels lazy rather than catchy. The aforementioned song that rhymes \u201cvaginoplasty\u201d is at once too campy for this movie and not fun enough for what it\u2019s attempting to do. None of these tunes stick in your head the way that those from the best musicals take up residence; these pass through, gone the moment the next scene begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s probably for the best, given that the songs in particular use some regressive language around the trans experience. In one song, Emilia sings that she is, \u201chalf him, half her,\u201d and it\u2019s hard not to cringe (and imagine the social media reaction when this movie is on Netflix). Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/em> does have empathy for its heroine and admiration for her transition, so this isn\u2019t coming from a bad place, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s good either. It does deserve praise for refusing to leer at Emilia and her body in ways that movies might have done in the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite some of its less-than-current ideas about gender, Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/em> belongs to its female actresses. Edgar Ram\u00edrez is the only recognizable male actor in a small supporting role in the movie\u2019s second half, but there\u2019s little for him to do \u2014 and there\u2019s no demonstrated need for his part to have been played by someone of his level of fame. Yet the trio of actresses at this movie\u2019s heart \u2014 Gasc\u00f3n, Saldana, and Gomez \u2014 are what makes Emilia P\u00e9rez <\/em>sing. Gomez offers raw pain and blistering rage as the grieving widow, while Adriana Paz gets some funny and moving moments as Emilia\u2019s new girlfriend. Saldana is alternately cool and full of rage; she gets the most vibrant musical numbers and emotes well enough to make up for the subpar lyrics. As Emilia, Gascon is required to show the most range, and it\u2019s an impressive performance that covers the character being underwritten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/em> is about redemption and love \u2014 as much as it is about anything \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t fully execute even those typical themes, as a result of its surface-level exploration. A swing this big is full of risks, but what\u2019s most surprising is how it fails to be interesting. Usually movies like this are at least compelling in their flaws, but Emilia P\u00e9rez <\/em>is unexpectedly prosaic in what ends up on screen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Emilia P\u00e9rez” is currently in theaters. It streams on Netflix<\/a> tomorrow. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Emilia-Perez-2-1024x577.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nC<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n