At a crossroads financially and professionally, Rita (Zoe Saldana), a talented and undervalued lawyer, is tapped to become the bearer of great secrets and responsibility when one of Mexico’s most notorious cartel leaders, Manitas Del Monte (Karla Sofia Gascon), changes her life forever.
Manitas loves his family but he’s been holding a secret since his childhood. He wants to be a woman. After first failing to find a trustworthy guide to escaping her life in order to transition, Manitas finds Rita. Her work allows him to transition into a woman named Emilia Perez, as she has always desired. However, in the joy she finds in her new and authentic life, she feels empty. Having left her world behind, she desires more in her life than just her identity. She then again finds Rita and the two work together to help her fulfill her dreams of connection and redeeming her past misdeeds.
Directed by Jacques Audiard, Emilia Perez uses different mediums to create a pop but artistic presentation. The music has a lot of energy and is able to present this dark and complicated story with a sense of life and colour. Audiard continues to show that, not only that he is a skilled visual composer, but one that is able to create energy from production design and music with his collaborators. This musical is unlike many on stage or on the screen in that it turns the normal locations into musical wonder through the movement of colourful plot. The restless energy of movement gives the entire film a rhythm that likens the film to a rock opera of Shakespearean score.
The drama and tragedy found within the film comes up in mostly expected ways but it all feels part of the tale that Audiard is trying to tell as he applies a healthy amount of convention to a boldly unique story that blends a trans story, a crime story and love story that has never really been covered. Emilia Pérez should be praised for this ambition alone but the way Audiard delivers it allows those who get into this film’s rhythm to experience something entirely new and vibrant. This is a film that could expand your mind and shake your soul.
Emilia Perez is playing at TIFF ’24. For more information, click here.
