REVIEW: “Emilia Pérez” (2024)

As a seasoned cinephile who has seen more films than I can count on one hand (and still have fingers left over), Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” is a movie that leaves me scratching my head in bewilderment. With its clumsy musical numbers, confusing plot twists, and an overall lack of emotional resonance, this film seems to be trying to do too much without succeeding at any of it.


Jacques Audiard’s film “Emilia Pérez” (2024) is one of the most puzzling movies of the year, with some considering it a potential award contender. However, this musical crime “comedy” is as baffling as it is bold, with very few of its ambitious elements hitting their mark. Audiard’s attempts at injecting humanity into the story often feel overly dramatic and fake. This summary only scratches the surface of the numerous perplexing aspects that make up this film.

The movie titled “Emilia Pérez” tries to accomplish several tasks, yet fails to excel in any of them. It’s a musical that seems to forget the beat, a thriller that fails to build tension, a comedy that lacks laughter, and a melodrama that falls short on emotional impact. Zoe Saldana delivers a standout performance, a testament to her talent often overlooked. However, making the audience connect with the characters proves challenging.

REVIEW: “Emilia Pérez” (2024)

In a different scenario, Saldaña portrays Rita Mora Castro, a Mexico City attorney who’s often overburdened and underestimated. She gets an enigmatic call from a potential client insisting on a meeting – an encounter that should have raised red flags due to its late-night setting along a side road near a newsstand. Yet, Rita decides to attend. Upon arrival, she’s swiftly covered with a hood and whisked away in a vehicle. This ride takes her to a remote location where she finds herself facing Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (played by Karla Sofía Gascón), a well-known crime boss.

Their meeting doesn’t go where Rita or the audience would expect. Manitas is looking to have a secret sex change procedure and wants to hire Rita to covertly oversee the planning. Seizing the offer to become insanely rich, Rita accepts her task of finding a willing doctor abroad, helping Manitas stage a believable death, and relocating Manitas’ wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and their two children to Switzerland. Soon Manitas is at a Tel Aviv clinic ran by Dr. Wasserman (Mark Ivanir).

Four years later, Rita finds herself living comfortably in London. However, her life takes another unexpected turn when she crosses paths with Emilia Pérez, who was once known as Manitas. Emilia yearns for a family reunion and asks Rita to facilitate it. This time, Rita’s mission is to bring Jessi and the children back to Mexico City, where they will reside with Emilia, pretending to be Manitas’ distant relative. It doesn’t require much intelligence to understand that Emilia’s deception has a limited shelf life. And as the story unfolds, it adds an air of disappointment to the movie.

REVIEW: “Emilia Pérez” (2024)

Reflecting on what I’ve experienced so far in “Emilia Pérez,” it might have slipped your mind that this is actually a musical. Don’t fret; there’s a good chance you’ll forget after watching it too. This is due to the fact that most of the songs fail to leave a lasting impression, with only the more outlandish tunes standing out. Unfortunately, these songs often feel contrived or inserted awkwardly instead of being seamlessly integrated into the film’s essence. Despite their brief duration, they can be quite an endurance test to sit through.

Watching “Emilia Pérez,” I found myself constantly pondering: What’s the underlying message here? How should I interpret its cryptic undertones? Who are these characters, and how am I supposed to connect with them, particularly Emilia? And was that truly the best conclusion Audiard could craft? In the end, I realized that I simply didn’t care. That’s my main issue with “Emila Pérez.” Despite its impressive ambition and Zoe Saldaña’s exceptional portrayal, the film left me feeling apathetic. And that’s not where you want to be when watching a movie like this.

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2024-11-20 18:56